My Backyard Studio

I am very fortunate that when we bought our house, there was a little heated shed in the back yard,

part of the back yard,

the back yard shed!

(some more of the back yard)

Entering the shed!

This has now been turned into my clay workshop. 
It is not very big, but that's okay, because I don't plan to make very big pieces.

this is my wheel,

 this shows the whole place,

all my decorating underglazes,

 making mugs,

 I am using a mix of techniques to get the patterns onto the clay,

 decorating seems to proceed at quite a slow pace.  Sometimes I look at a piece later and it seems sort of primitive, but it is the most skilled that I can do at the time, so, all I can hope for is gradual improvement to refine it. 

 I have recently added a couple of more items to my regular line up of mugs--  Some slab trays, and some little thrown bowls, and some hand-built vases.
This is one of the shapes of trays.

 I have ordered some new elements for the kiln.
I am also missing my compadres at the Clay Spot in Savannah,

Some Cross-over

I am a quilter as well as a potter, and often the two crafts intersect.  Most obviously, sometimes I use motifs found on fabrics for decoration.  I also seem to echo color combinations, and repeating shapes. 
This photo shows the same design that was a machine quilting sample used as a mishima decoration:

 I think that machine quilting designs lend themselves particularly well to slip trailing as well.

 and of course, I can't keep myself from dividing up a pot into pieces to decorate with different patterns...

Decorating

Some time ago I was decorating some pieces and using newspaper shapes as resists.  I couldn't help but notice how nice the actual paper shapes looked on the clay.

I love the little bursts of random color surrounded by the more controlled colors.

 I don't know how to get this effect on a finished piece without a whole lot of trouble.  Maybe just get some sheets of decals made up that are copies of actual newspaper pages! But where do you get decals made that are full color and in lots less than 100 sheets of the same thing..... hmm.

Mug Shapes

I like to do mugs these days, I suppose because you can always give them away to people, or use them.  They do seem to get used enough that eventually they break or you get tired of them and you need another one. 
The mug shapes above are ones that I've made in the last week or two, in my little backyard shed here in Asquith. 
The ones below were made in Savannah in May or June,
I am currently leaning toward the more open top, and squaring it off, but retaining the same type of  handles, and the little foot ring that flares out too.
I've returned to using Plainsman clay,-- some M370 that is about 12 years aged, and some P300, which is what I think I'll stick with.