I had a great visit today with Patty and Mona at Stones Throw Gallery in St. Peter when I was dropping off these sample place settings. The place settings will be offered as made to order items. Stones Throw Gallery offers a wonderful collection of local artists in a gorgeous old Queen Ann home along Highway 169. I'm am flattered to be among the artists represented by Stones Throw and hope you have an opportunity to check the gallery out.
Have a great weekend.
I delivered these yarn bowls and several mugs to BeeLighted Fiber and Gifts in Zumbrota, Minnesota. It's an awesome fiber shop offering gorgeous wools and other fibers for knitters, felters and other fiber artists. Visiting the shop is a visual and tactile treat with a rainbow of fiber colors and textures. Stop in and check out all the fabulous fibers this shop has to offer.
Well, maybe not all of it. But definitely some of it.
After our second day of snow and a sort of frustrating day at work, I arrived home to a kiln that was cool enough to unload (it's a little unusual for me to wait that long). This load had several sample place setting that will be going to Stones Throw Gallery in St. Peter. The yellow one was a little disappointing, but the other three look great. The yellow glaze looks great on a white clay, but on the buff colored clay this place setting is made from it isn't as appealing to me. 
There were also several mugs in this load. A few weeks ago, I showed these mugs after they'd been thrown and I was putting the slip stripes on them. The green one is gorgeous (except for the part where the glaze ran onto the shelf). You can still see the slip is white compared to the buff of the mug body. The one on the right is Iron Red with Sky Blue on the upper portion. It's great too, but if you remember, I was going to try to bring more color into my cone 6 work rather than my typical earthy tones. 
What do you think?
I don't usually do much glazing until Spring, but I have some custom work that needs to get done. But yesterday, I glazed up everything that has a new home awaiting and I hope to fire them yet today. My normal process gets almost an entire years worth of sale inventory thrown and bisqued by late March. Then I start glazing enough to start my sales season and the rest of the summer, I just glaze as needed. April days in Minnesota are great for glazing lots of pots and letting them dry in the sun on the deck railing.
This process helps relieve some production pressure during the summer. I can still throw things as I'd like, but don't have to hurry to get things made and fired for the next show. Since I also work full time, I often don't have enough time between summer shows to accomplish much.
In the past I've used lots of brown/rust/red iron based glazes on my cone 6 work. Now that I've got my new woodfired kiln built, I'm thinking of filling my earthy brown pottery needs with pots from there and bringing more colors into my cone 6 firings. In the photo at the top of the post, the plates are a wonderful buttery yellow with green drizzled across and wine bottle coaster in the upper center of the photo is green with a medium blue drizzled across it. Well, that's what I'm thinking right now anyway... I can always change my mind. Right?
Last weekend I mentioned I'd made some mugs in a new design. I hadn't put handles on yet so I didn't photograph them. Well, they've gotten handles and I spent some time yesterday adding decorative details. Several received these slip stripes and others were stamped on the lower section. Now I can hardly wait to see how they look glazed.
Have a great week.
Knitting and crocheting have been making quite a comeback the last few years and with that, so has a popular pottery item called yarn bowls. They are a handy bowl with a slit or hole in the side to string yarn through to keep the ball of yarn from rolling around and getting away from you while you work. I've had a number people inquire if I made them and at the time I didn't. After several questions, though I thought I should give it a try. Here's the first batch out - they are very colorful.
They've been fun to make and I think I'll be making more. Have a great weekend!
