It was still a little chilly, and quite windy, as the breeze was blowing in off the lake. Which kind of made it feel like a headwind going in both directions! But it was still well worth the extra effort. As the flooding rains have stopped, as have the snow showers. With a lot of sunshine, it feels like Spring might actually be on its way… to stay this time!

Another sign of Spring… precious, little purple flowers popping up along the bike path.

Not to mention the leaves that are finally bursting out to greet the sun.
Guess all of that rain earlier in the week really paid off!

When I came into start stamping tonight, this one plate was too dry. So I sprayed it with water trying to soften it up a bit. It helped, but not enough, so I sprayed it again. And again. Guess that third time was a little too much water for it too handle? Good thing I had thrown a couple extra plates… just in case!

Tonight I stamped the larger berry bowls that I threw last night. Sure, they were still a little damp… which just makes it a little tougher & a little squishier. But sometimes that makes for deeper & more dynamic impressions!

BOWL A – plain and full of potential…

The chosen stamp…

The bowl after stamping & fluting… no longer plain…

Potential fulfilled.

BOWL B – Another plain bowl ready to go…

BOWL C – Ready for action.

BOWL D – not just your average bowl… soon ‘nuf.

BOWL E – waiting for the party…

PLATE – of course the drip plates that go with the berry bowls need to be stamped too!

So now they’re all wrapped up and drying a bit more under plastic. I’m hoping to get back to them tomorrow for a little trimming!

While it’s been raining, snowing, sleeting & flooding…
It was so refreshing to see a moment of Spring captured in one of my vases!
One of my friends sent me a picture of how she’s dealing with the terrible weather… by forcing a bit of Spring brightness into her house! Thanks for sharing Mary Pat.

I’ve been putting it off for too long.
But I’m finally doing some new glaze tests… fingers crossed… I hate triple beam balances!

And more to come… hopefully. I think I might be on a roll.

Because larger berries will need larger berry bowls.

Today has been a challenging, swampy, flooded rain fiasco.
Huge amounts of rain pouring down on Chicago.
Flooded streets everywhere. Flooded rivers & creeks all over the suburbs.
There were actual whitecaps flowing down Western Avenue this morning.
I’m not kidding! Whitecaps!!!

But I just had a mid-afternoon break with a yummy s’mores.
Okay, three of them, but who’s counting?
All is good. Balance restored.

In tonight’s wheelthrowing class, we covered the basics again, cylinders, taller cylinders, soap dispensers – even a quick flower pot. Busy class. Then we ended with one of my favorite topics… stamp-making!

When I parked my bike to take some more pictures this morning, I found some really great colors & textures growing on the side of the tree.

Some mornings it’s all about the clouds…

Today was one of those days.
So beautiful in their ever-changing, ever-moving, dramatic float across the sky.

Every few minutes, an entirely different cloudscape as they blew in, blew out, & dissipated across the sky. We never really got the beautiful, glowing orange sunrise. But sometimes a bunch of clouds are just as cool.

This morning I just couldn’t stop taking photos.
The cloudscape just kept changing & moving. I ended up with a total of 144 photos from this morning’s bike ride alone. And that number seems really gross.