Driving home from Hinsdale… and treated to a beautiful sunset & scenic view of Buckingham Fountain. Another reminder of why I love living in Chicago so much. Simply beautiful… and a great way to “end” day one of the Hinsdale Fine Arts Festival.

After today’s art fair in Hinsdale, I had a nice dinner with my booth neighbor Rhonda. She contacted me on Friday and suggested we do dinner after the show… and went on to suggest we go to Jade Dragon for Chinese food. She knew that for years I would go there with my Mom & Dad after the show on Saturdays. She thought it would be a nice way to honor my Mom… and I got warm fuzzies! And then tonight we ordered all of the same foods that my Mom would have ordered. Such a nice evening with my very thoughtful friend Rhonda!

Blue skies & my flag is flying! This weekend is the HINSDALE FINE ARTS FESTIVAL in Burlington Park. C’mon by Booth 69 to say “Hi” and see a lot of my pottery! We’re here today & tomorrow from 10:00am-5:00pm.

Just arrived in Hinsdale… and it looks like the start of a beautiful day!!! Time to start unloading my car & setting up my booth. I’ve got a couple hours to get everything ready as we open at 10:00am. Be sure to come by Booth 69 to say hello today or tomorrow!!!

This weekend… the Hinsdale Fine Arts Festival in downtown Hinsdale in Burlington Park. I will be filling my booth with lots of handmade pottery… mugs, bowls, vases, flower pots, ikebana vases & so much more! Hoping for good weather & lots of fun people to chat with tomorrow & Sunday. C’mon by…

It’s apparently IRIS SEASON… at least by looking in my garden! I’m totally enamored by all of the different iris colors, textures & aromas that are blooming along my garden this week. The smell of a good iris is totally a childhood flashback. Some people love the scent, some people don’t… I love it!!! Unfortunately, the flowers are short-lived… so enjoy them while you can!

Looks like Julie is enjoying her new green stamped platter & staying healthy too! Sure, mine would have a cheesecake or something on it… but these look good too! HA!!! Thanks for sharing Julie!

Another quiet morning with a few clouds gently wafting through. A nice respite from this week’s “heatwave” with slightly cooler morning temps & a nice breeze along the lakefront.

After the class discussion & demo about sgraffito, my SURFACE DECORATION class set-off to decorate their own pieces. The goal was to get crisp clean lines & patterns carved through the dark layer of slip or underglaze to reveal the lighter clay body. They really enjoyed using my collection of DiamondCore Tools to get some crisp & clean carving lines. The perfect way to let their creative expressions reveal themselves!

For my SURFACE DECORATION class last week, we tackled some sgraffito… decorative carving through a contrasting color layer to reveal the lighter clay body color below! We talked about a few techniques & tricks… and then I started carving a couple of my platters as a demo… and soon enough they were ready to tackle their own pieces! Good thing I had my DiamondCore Carving Tools ready for some crisp clean lines… that also made some pretty cool “zebra” layered clippings!