Only fifteen more “Likes” on Facebook
and my little, old pottery page will have fifteen hundred followers!!!

Spread the word… let’s get there quickly!!!
Click here to get to Fire When Ready Pottery on Facebook!!!

Tonight I focused on making more test tiles for some upcoming glaze tests.
Textured with stamps and grooves to “break & pool” the glazes in all the right places.
I made two batches with two different clay bodies… just to see how much difference
the iron content makes!!!

I think I’m going to like the “cleaner-lighter” look of the new glazes on B-Clay.
Just guessing.

Tonight my class tackled pulling handles & adding them to their basic cylinders
from Week One. So now it’s only Week Two and they’ve already made MUGS!!!
I think they’re off to a great start!!!

So there were nine movies nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture this morning. Which makes nine movies I need to see in the next six weeks. Bring on the popcorn!!!

“12 Years a Slave”
“The Wolf of Wall Street”
“Captain Phillips”
“Her”
“American Hustle”
“Gravity”
“Dallas Buyers Club”
“Nebraska”
“Philomena”

After finishing de-Christmasing the Pier a bit early today, I decided it was the perfect afternoon to do my first official bike ride of the New Year! The lakefront path is still a bit treacherous in parts, but the frozen lakefront was beautiful. Especially the crashing waves, the icebergs & rainbows. Yes… rainbows!!!

Most of the bike trail was pass-able. Okay, some parts were pretty dicey. I did have to get off and walk over some icy patches… and actually portage my bike across some piles of icy snow & muddy puddles.

An iceberg “sink hole.” It would fill up every time the waves came in, and then empty out as the waves receded. In this photo, the water is “draining” down.

And sure, the crashing waves & broken icebergs are pretty cool… but dirty! Actually it’s the sand being churned up from the waves and mixing in with the water as it is freezing onshore!

And to think I actually use these stairs to climb out of the lake when swimming in the summer?! Looks like I’ve got a couple months before the water will be warm enough to swim in again?!!!

Love how the ice has “draped” the boulders along the water’s edge.

And the “fringe” if ice draping down the sides of the breakwaters…

And did I mention “rainbows”???…
Look close for the rainbow towards the left side of the photo. When the waves were crashing in, they were somehow getting “trapped” under the layer of iceberg. And then a bit of mist was bursting through as the sun was hitting it in just the right way. Creating a rainbow with every crashing wave!

Clouds rolling in… and temperatures dropping… time to pedal home!

The line-up for this year’s Firefly Music Festival was announced today. 4 days. 7 stages. 100 bands. Looks like it’s going to be another fun trip to Dover… if only I were about 25 years younger I might know of a few more of these bands?!

Gotta do some homework.

Tonight was the first night of my new session of pottery classes.
My Beginning & Advanced Beginning Wheelthrowing Class has some new students. Some just “new to me.” And several fun “repeat offenders.” Either way, I hope they had a great time. And if I didn’t win them over with my teaching & witty banter… I sure hope the Garrett’s Chicago Mix Popcorn sealed the deal.

Another day down at Navy Pier.
And another beautiful skyline view.
Yep, it never gets old.

It was a beautiful sky show this morning.
Very moody with dark clouds in the sky & floating icebergs breaking up in the lake.
Let the “de-Christmasing” continue… another couple days & another forty trees or so!!!