September has arrived, the Canfield Fair is under way, children have gone back to school, and we start to think of things to come this fall. That is . . . Autumn Leaves, Harvest Things, Pumpkins, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Even though fall isn’t official until later in the month, the Fall Workshop Schedule is already published (scroll down to see it). However, many of the end-of-summer workshops are getting us started. We already did the Fall Harvest Jar workshop in Fashenhues and next week is the Patchwork Pumpkin Stack Jar workshop where we will learn to paint “fabric” in stripes and plaids.

We had to cancel the Colorburst Crystals Workshop last week and the Kids Krafts workshop scheduled for tomorrow (due to the water heater replacement). However, Jim is now starting to pour the leaf dishes. There are four different sizes this year – large ($5), medium ($5), and two sizes of small ($5 for the pair). With the studio fee it comes to $20 to do the whole set (which is what the workshop would cost).  Rather than rescheduling the workshop we will offer this technique during any open class that does not have another workshop going on (so, not on Thursdays in September, and not on alternate Wednesdays in October).

Crystal Glazes have a liquid base color but also chunks of hardened glaze in one or more contrasting colors.  These crystals melt when fired and form unique and beautiful patterns on the ware. On vertical pieces (such as vases and coffee cups) they cascade and flow more than on flat pieces (such as plates) where they puddle in place and make more of a polka-dot pattern. The leaf dish is the perfect piece for crystal glazes because of the gradual slope to the bottom of the bowl. We have several crystal glazes on hand for you to choose from.

Colorburst Crystals are chunks of harden glaze that come in tubes and can be added to any base color to create a unique crystal glaze. This allows us to create an unlimited variety of crystal glazes. We can use a base color of yellow, orange, red, brown, or green for the leaf and then add white, yellow, orange, red, green, brown, or black crystals or a combination of these. I like to use two or three crystal colors at most.

The final “summer workshop” is Silly Scarecrows on Thursday, September 15^th.  We will do these in Fashenhues to bring out all the intricate details. Scarecrow pictures will be posted later and it is very important to order yours ahead of time. We need time to pour, clean, and fire them but also will paint the base coat for you if it isn’t too late to do so. Those of you who did the Harvest Jar workshop might have gotten to finish if they had been base-coated ahead of time. (If you want to paint a scarecrow but don’t care to work with Fashenhues you can still come and do yours in acrylics. Let me know so we don’t base coat it for you.)

Watch for more fall items coming up at the Fall Workshops.  And check out the Harvest Time and Trick-or-Treat sections of the catalog. We have many sizes of pumpkins and other Halloween decorations. But there are way too many selections for us to pour them all for the shelf.

Carousel Creations Where having Fun in why we come!

So why not come on over and make yourself some Autumn Leaves?