You may have seen that every year I have a special pottery day with each of my two granddaughters where we make gifts for the family at Christmas. This week we celebrated their 3rd and 6th birthdays.🎂 Last Christmas, my eldest granddaughter Mila completely stole everyone’s hearts by basically “hosting her own YouTube video” impromptu at just 5 years old 😂 She was absolutely amazing… including reminding everyone to “ask a grown up if you need to use sharp stuff!” 😆💜 ( I’ll pop the video link below because it still makes me smile so much ) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8o2w6bPWEc&t=620s Well… Mila has now asked if she can come and spend the day with Nanna and Grumpy on Thursday because her school is closed here in the UK for voting day (they use the school as a polling station). Her little sister will still be in kindergarten, so she’ll get a whole day with us 🥹 And her exact words were: “Nanna, Can we do pottery… and can I make my own YouTube video?” Honestly… my heart melted. Now usually I am FULL of project ideas… but my brain has completely gone blank this time! Plus only got a few days to come up with something! She has tried the wheel once and loved it, but I think hand building would probably work best for a fun filming day. She learns incredibly quickly and made some gorgeous angels last year. I wondered if anyone here has done particularly successful pottery projects with children around this age? Maybe something fun she could make multiples of as Christmas gifts… or perhaps one really special piece for her own room? I’d absolutely love any ideas or inspiration from fellow clay people 💜 All photos to inspire me would get extra brownie points 🤣🤯

This month, we’re diving into glazes.🫟 Inspired by Sarah from Three Little Potters, this challenge is all about testing, exploring, and rethinking what we already have. We all have those glazes. The ones we rarely reach for. The ones we tend to avoid… because they never quite turned out the way we hoped. Colors that feel off. Results that disappoint. Tests that didn’t go as planned. So this month, we’re choosing one of them. ✨ Pick one glaze you don’t like (or don’t trust yet) ✨ Combine it with 5 different glazes you already know and trust ✨ Test them layered, top & bottom, side by side — get curious ✨ Share your results How you do it? Completely up to you. Test tiles, small dishes, a cup, a plate… everything on one piece or separate tests — there’s no right or wrong way. This is about experimentation.🧪🔬 Try unusual combinations. 🤪 Push it further than you normally would. Be bold with it. At the end, take a moment to reflect: What worked? What didn’t? What surprised you? The goal isn’t perfection. It’s discovery.💡 And maybe, just maybe, the glaze you’ve been avoiding comes back to life. ✨ Share your process, your tests, your results ✨ Let’s learn from each other ✨ And turn “unloved” glazes into something unexpected

After watching Diana and Shane’s YouTube video today on color, I thought these pictures fit their discussion perfectly. The first two were Natalie Warren’s’ booth at the ceramic show over the weekend. And another whose name I don’t know. The picture at the end was a lady with a basket of snacks for all of us. What I saw were the red packets and couldn’t figure out why she had packets of catsup! They weren’t 😵‍💫

Hello all. Crazing can be a confusing glaze problem, and there are a lot of myths out there regarding its causes. (Just like a lot of glaze defects) I can explain it, but if you want the experts, you can't do any better than the Ceramics Materials Workshop. Here, they provide a short lesson on crazing, its causes, the myths surrounding it, and the chemistry that causes it... yes, always. It's very short; just over 12 minutes. It's also free, so please watch: https://youtu.be/NkNda1R-xro?si=iV-AMlQBlMQWRlPf

We made it to Morro Bay, CA yesterday and there was a kite festival going on. So fun! Today we turned right and are heading north up the west coast! 🌊🥳 I found these adorable mugs in a boutique and love the spoons in the handle. And how cute is the candle holder?!? Added to the list of things to try! 🙂