A great “hands-on” project… Cory is doing her part, and I’m doing mine!
Mark your calendar for “Art In The Garden” in Glenview on August 30th & 31st.
One-of-a-kind, limited edition collaborations with my friend Cory McCrory!!!

Last night in class, one of the students brought in some Bulgarian pottery that demonstrated their traditional slip decorating style. We had discussed this traditional Bulgarian technique of slip decorating in class. I saw a YouTube video and decided I would try it for my class. If I’m going to mess up, why not do it in front of my students for a good laugh?! So we discussed it, did the demo and I posted it on my blog and Facebook page. Marina had seen the posts, and since she’s Bulgarian.. who better to bring in some actual pieces from Bulgaria???

Click here to see my original posting about this process…
including the original video that inspired my class demo on slip “dripping” decoration!

So here are a few colorful examples of the Bulgarian style of slip decoration. It’s a pretty amazing technique of dripping, banding, squirting and dragging through layers of colorful slips. These examples were gorgeous… and more colorful than I expected?!

Look close. It’s all done with colored slip. Drips. Bands. More drips. And dragging through…

Click here to see the original blog post about the video I saw online that started this whole thing. And special thanks for Marina for bringing in these beautiful samples. So fun to see this Bulgarian pottery story come full circle. Video. Demo. Gorgeous.

Passed out. Knocked out. Cranial fracture.
When bad things happen to good Chess pieces.

Chess Camp is moving along quite nicely. The kids have been creating pawns, knights, bishops & more. All in their own crazy themes – mostly from video games I know nothing about!!! Nintenedo… Legend of Zelda… you get the drift…

Luckily, I do know a “little” about the Peashooters from “Plants vs. Zombies.”
But a quick Google Image search never hurt anyone…

And then… MAGIC!!!
I love it when this happens!!!

Crashing. Popping. Spraying.
Waves crashing VERTICALLY against the corrugated breakwater shoreline.

So much fun trying to catch them at just the right moment…
and avoid getting wet at the same time.

I did pretty good with both - for the most part…

More sky. More water. More flooded beach…

Not sure what happened last night… maybe more rain than I thought?!

But this morning, the beach this morning was “flooded” with water a lot higher than I’ve ever seen before?! Pretty cool to see the lake a lot higher, ripples on the beach, and reflections in places I’ve never seen before.

It never gets old.
I still love watching other potters making their work. Whether throwing, trimming, stamping, carving, decorating. or whatever. Always beautiful. Always mesmerizing. Always a great creative inspiration for all of us. And these Icheon Master Hands from Korea are pretty darn incredible! Each one showing their techniques… and making it “look” so easy!!! Although we all know it’s NOT!!!

For a compilation video of five great Icheon Master Hands from Korea, click here.
If you want to see more… continue on. You’ll be glad you did.

For more video of Master Hand Choi In-Gyu… click here.

For more video of Master Hand Yo Se-Yeon… click here.

For more video of Master Hand Lee Hyang-Gu… click here.

For more video of Master Hand Kim Seong-Tae… click here.

For more video of Master Hand You Yong-Chul… click here.

Some great inspiration for all of us.
I especially loved the work by Kim Seong-Tae. The carving is pretty impressive, and I was pleasently surprised with the big reveal of the layered colored slips as he carved through to add colorful details to the remaining parts of the pots. So beautiful. So delicate. So inspiring.

Today was the first day of Chess Camp. And we started the day with some “traditional” chess as we discussed the kids’ plans for the crazy, thematic sets they’re going to make this week. And let me just say, some of these kids are far too smart for me!!! And MUCH better at chess… but that’s not saying much!!!