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!

Yes, I am the only teacher cruel enough to be excited by the opportunity to give one of my students something I can call a "Darwin Award". Ashley Allemeier wins it fins-down for her Darwin the Dolphin.

From our last kiln firings for the year:

by Neha Chintala (Can you say, "It's so cuuuuuuute"? Breathe in some helium first to get it right.)

by Paige Rogstad

This was my company while I was firing the last kiln late at night.

by Donny Clark

A belated congratulations to our graduated Wizard-Potters of Philosophy! They did much more than just muggle around with clay.

Despite some initial confusion, on their last day some of the seniors stepped up and took on the challenge of throwing on the wheel while blindfolded. When they finally looked at what they'd done, there was triumph, heartbreak, laughter, clean-up, and maybe a few cookies - and a good job done by all.