Last year I bought a live tree to display my ornaments. It was great, but there were needles everywhere. I still have it, but it's gotten bigger and I wanted a less messy alternative. I bought these Manzanita trees on Etsy and then my husband mounted them to a board so they would stand up. I love how they turned out, but I'm debating spray painting them silver, thoughts?
Don't forget about the Howard County Holiday Mart this Saturday!

Three weekends in a row of shows starts this Saturday December 2nd at the Howard County Holiday Mart. The following week Thursday December 7th through Sunday Decemver 10th I will be at the Annapolis Holiday Market. Finally, on December 16th and 17th I will be at the Cloisters Holiday Bazaar and Tea - make your reservations now for tea if you're interested or just stop by the bazaar.

My favorite thing out of the kiln is the leaf bowl. My two second favorite things are the two platters. I love the green one with it's pattern, but I also love the camping platter. I'm very tempted to take that to our cabin.

Laguna 60 Mayco black ug wiped back Mayco Hot Tamale, Sunkissed, Just Froggy, Orange a Peal 2167 Clear	OUtside of the bowl Amaco Ancient Copper x3
Kentucky Mudworks Brown Bear Jade Moss (old formula) x3	Kentucky Mudworks Brown Bear Mayco black ug wiped back Mayco Frosted Lemon x3 Night Moth x2 Mayco Hot Tamale, Orange a Peel, Sunkissed, Just Froggy, Java Bean, Cotton Tail, Sour Apple, Fruit of the Vine x2
Kentucky Mudworks Brown Bear Mayco black ug wiped back Mayco Eggplant x3 Passion Flower x2 Mayco Hot Tamale, Orange a Peel, Sunkissed, Just Froggy, Java Bean, Cotton Tail, Sour Apple, Fruit of the Vine x2	Kentucky Mudworks Brown Bear Mayco black ug wiped back Mayco Frosted Lemon x3 Night Moth x2 Mayco Hot Tamale, Orange a Peel, Sunkissed, Just Froggy, Java Bean, Cotton Tail, Sour Apple, Fruit of the Vine x2
Kentucky Mudworks Brown Bear Mayco black ug wiped back Laguna Power Turquoise x3 Night Moth x2 Mayco Hot Tamale, Orange a Peel, Sunkissed, Just Froggy, Java Bean, Cotton Tail, Sour Apple, Fruit of the Vine x2	Kentucky Mudworks Brown Bear Mayco black ug wiped back Amaco Blue Rutile x3 Mayco Hot Tamale, Orange a Peel, Sunkissed, Just Froggy, Java Bean, Cotton Tail, Sour Apple, Fruit of the Fine x2
Kentucky Mudworks Brown Bear Mayco black ug wiped back Mayco Frosted Lemon x3 Night Moth x2 Mayco Hot Tamale, Orange a Peel, Sunkissed, Just Froggy, Java Bean, Cotton Tail, Sour Apple, Fruit of the Vine x2	Kentucky Mudworks Brown Bear Mayco black ug wiped back Mayco Frosted Lemon x3 Night Moth x2 Mayco Hot Tamale, Orange a Peel, Sunkissed, Just Froggy, Java Bean, Cotton Tail, Sour Apple, Fruit of the Vine x2
Kentucky Mudworks Brown Bear Mayco black ug wiped back Mayco Just Froggy, Java Bean, Tuxedo x2	Kentucky Mudworks Brown Bear Mayco black ug wiped back Mayco Frosted Lemon x3 Night Moth x2 Mayco Hot Tamale, Orange a Peel, Sunkissed, Just Froggy, Java Bean, Cotton Tail, Sour Apple, Fruit of the Vine x2
Laguna 60 Mayco black ug wiped back Mayco Hot Tamale x2 Mayco Norse Blue x3 Light flux sweeps 2167 clear	Laguna 60 Mayco black ug wiped back Mayco Hot Tamale x2 Mayco Norse Blue x3 Light flux sweeps 2167 clear
Laguna 60 Amaco Snow x3	Laguna 60 Mayco black ug wiped back Opulence Emerald x2
Laguna 60 Mayco black ug wiped back Mayco Hot Tamale, Orange a Peel, Sunkissed, Just Froggy, Cotton Tail, Blue Yonder x2 2167 clear	Laguna 60 Mayco black ug wiped back Mayco Hot Tamale, Orange a Peel, Sunkissed, Just Froggy, Cotton Tail x2 2167 clear
Laguna 60 Mayco black ug wiped back Mayco Hot Tamale, Camelback x2 2167 clear	Laguna 60 Mayco black ug wiped back Mayco Orange a Peel, Blue Yonder, Cotton Tail x2 2167 clear
Laguna 60 Mayco black ug wiped back Opulence Emerald x2	This was a refire because I wasn't happy with the background. It's still weird, but better I added 2 coats of Amaco Lagoon
Kentucky Mudworks Brown Bear Mayco black ug wiped back Mayco Frosted Lemon x3 Night Moth x2 Mayco Hot Tamale, Orange a Peel, Sunkissed, Just Froggy, Java Bean, Cotton Tail, Sour Apple, Fruit of the Vine x2

Lots of camping series things in this kiln. You can see some bowls and soup mugs in the sneak peek. Loving how my leaf bowl turned out. I made that on a whim when I was making a leaf globe and had some extra leaves. I think it looks amazing. I can't quite see how the outside looks, but I used some of the discontinued Ancient Copper on it and I'm excited.

It's a crabby beachy clock! I love it! I decided to go with red hands from Amazon because I thought they would pop and they did!

I did make the hole a little too big so I need to get another washer to stablize it before I can hang it, but it's going to look awesome.


This is what it looked like before, you can see how big the hole is. I want to make more clocks now. I think I need a lavender one for my office.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

After my last show I realized that I was almost out of everything crab. With 4 shows left in the year I knew I needed more. Anything with crabs on it are my best selling items. It's not surprising given that I live in Maryland. It is ironic, however, since I am deathly allergic to eating crabs.

I now do all my glazing inside my house. I have this weird space that's between the kitchen and the family room that doesn't make sense for long term furniture, but is perfect to setup two tables for glazing.


This is the first time that both of the tables have been covered only by one series. I've had a table covered, maybe even a table and a half, but this is all crabs everywhere. I do actually like having a lot of the same thing to glaze. It makes things go faster in the long run.




Even if I do have a few different things for the kiln, there are still steps that I do individually. First I wet sand any rough patches off my pieces. I get a lot more rough patches when the pieces are made with clay that has grog or sand in it. That means for me - more sanding with the laguna 60 than with the laguna b - mix or Kentucky Brown Bear. I also sand anything that I think could get sharper in the kiln - edges that are a little sharp after bisque can get really sharp after the glaze firing.

Next I wipe everything down with a sponge to clean it. Then I add any underglaze that I'm going to do in recessed places. Once the underglaze is dry, I wipe it back with a sponge. The last stage of prep is waxing bottoms. After this I let it all dry thoroughly. I want the wax to be completely dry and since I've just wet the pieces down I want them to dry out before I add my glaze. Glaze will look better when it goes onto a dry pot, you can get crawling if your pot is too wet when you glaze. I've had this happen and its just irritating to have a pot that is perfect except a spot in a recessed area has crawled and has no glaze.




For any piece that I have that has detail work I do that first. This is 137 crabs. For my crabs I do the legs and claws separate from the bodies because I need to use different brushes. In this case I did all the legs and claws first - 2 coats. Then I went and did all the bodies, also 2 coats.




Next I'll go through and add 3 coats of Mayco Norse Blue. Once that's dry I'll add my sweeps of Mayco Light Flux. Last I'll add clear to all the surfaces that represent sand to give it a nice smooth finish.

My little squiggle snowmen were really popular so I decided to make a few more. I use a handheld extruder to make the coils. It saves tons of time and makes them really even. To make the snowmen I'm using two of the small puzzling molds from Learn Fired Arts. I only have one set so I can only make one at a time, but they're small so they are setup enough in about an hour to slip and score.

I will be crocheting little scarves and hats for these in various colors.


I wasn't extruding anything else and I had enough coils left for just a head so I made a snowman who has melted. I can't look at this without giggling.