A few things I've been playing with lately:

A first few pictures:

by Roya Baharloo

by Krista Loutsis

by Emma MacDuff

It wasn't the happiest kiln-firing ever - the top of the kiln was far cooler than I wanted - but we still got some happy first project results. In the next week I should have photos of everything in the gallery.

by Kevin Zhou

by Michelle Auyeung

After doing some work patching up the kiln, our first cone ten firing of the year, just in time for Halloween. Hopefully things will go boo-tifully.

What's a firing without trying out a few new glaze recipes?

Thanks to all those who came - I only wish I'd had more time to really meet everyone. Here are some of the results of the raku firing that we did:

by Kyla Keeler

by Emma Hunter

Horse, earthenware with traces of paint - China, Tang Period (618 - 907)

Detail view

Guanyin, 17th - 18th century - Dehua ware, Fujian Province, Quing Period

Detail view of crown

Deng Fen - detail view from Beauties, 1936, ink and color on paper

Zhou Leyuan - snuff bottle, 1897. This thing is smaller than your thumb, so the detail is impressive for it's size alone - but look at it again. All that detail? It's painted on the INSIDE of the bottle.

Guardians, 15th - 16th century, gilded bronze and pearl - China, Ming Dynasty. This is pretty much how excited I am to come in and work with clay every day: so excited that I will crush any barbarian that gets in my way.

I had a few minutes to kill at the UW, and so went into the Allen lobby of the Suzzallo & Allen Library, where these ravens hang out. If you've never explored the Suzzallo Library, you're missing out on one of the best things in Seattle - it's an entire kingdom of awesome.

And we're off to another fun-(and possibly cookie)-filled year - yes! After a week of saying (a tiny fraction of) what there is to say about clay, it's time to get to work with our hands. Thanks for a great start - let's keep it up.

After some summer clean-up, I've got the ceramics magic kingdom mostly back together. This week and next I'll be in the studio Tues - Thursday from 10am to 2pm; if you've had the class and want to do some work, come in. You just have to do a good job of cleaning up when you finish.

Click on the picture below to view the whole classroom in a Quicktime movie. If you had the class last year, bonus points if you can spot five new posters. If you've never seen the room, you can play "Where's Hellboy?"

Hope everyone is enjoying summer. Lisa and I and most of my crazy family had a fun holiday on Lopez Island for the 4th. Since I couldn't work with clay, I ended up looking up and creating links to a couple hundred more ceramics artists - some cool stuff!