You know how I love free clay!
Okay, so sure I needed to do some physical labor to get it done, but it was well worth it. So I took my stoneware scraps, dried them, smashed them up and then soaked them in a big tub. After awhile, you can take the re-hydrated clay out of the bin and place it on a large plaster bat to help suck the moisture out. I’ve been trying to judge the moisture level of my pile of reclaim. It always dries out faster on the outside, and stays gooier on the inside. Tonight was the night.

So I carefully took the clay off the plaster bat in batches. Then did several sliced layer towers to help homogenize the clay. Some more pounding, slicing, stacking, pounding, stacking, slicing, and so forth.

By the time I finished reconstituting the clay, I had it all packed & bagged… and it turned out to be a 151.5 pounds of FREE clay!!! It’s not fully wedged at this point, but it will set up in the plastic bags. When I get ready to use it, I will do the full wedging then.

Sign-up today for a fun summer!
Take a class at Lillstreet Art Center. Come play in the mud with me every Tuesday night for Beginning & Advanced Beginning Wheelthrowing class. If you sign-up soon, you can still get the discounted price!!! If you wait too long, you’ll miss the discount and risk ending up on my Waiting List?! No fun there.

My class session begins on June 17th… and lasts for a full 10-weeks!!!
Click here to go straight to online registration.

Another dark morning along the lakefront.
Good thing we had a little “extra” light shining.

The lakefront was back to normal today. Beautiful sunrise. Quiet on the bike trail. No crazy “picnic crowd” wandering aimlessly all over the place oddly unaware of the traffic speeding past & around them on the bike trail… yes, BIKE trail!!! Good to have things back on track.

I kicked off my holiday with another sunrise bike ride along the lakefront… well before the holiday “picnic crowd” flood in and converge all over “my” bike trail.

Further down the road… the sun came up and splashing golden colors across the water.

BIG THANKS to everyone who came out this weekend and shared their perfect weather with me in Schaumburg. It was great to see so many friends, family, talented artist friends, old college friends, old friends from my previous corporate-life, and new Facebook Fans this weekend. Especially those who came up from Pekin/Goodfield or down from the Wisconsin Dells or the Northwoods!!! You all made it a wonderful show… and a great kick-off to my art fair season. Thanks for playing!!!

The fun continues in two weeks…
Hinsdale Fine Arts Festival – Saturday, June 7th & Sunday, June 8th

Yesterday was a beautiful day in the park…
and they’re forecasting that today could be even nicer. If that’s even possible?!
Bring it on!!!

And the park we’re in is pretty darn beautiful too…

A field of dandelions playing in the morning sun. A fun end to this morning’s ride. And now back to the art fair… stop by the Schaumburg Prairie Arts Festival today from 10am-5pm. It looks like it’s going to be another beautiful day!!!

I started out early this morning… knowing that I needed to “squeeze in” my morning bike ride BEFORE I head back out to Schaumburg for Day Two of the Prairie Arts Festival.

Another beautiful morning along the lakefront. The ride south was quiet along the bike trail.

But coming back, I hopped on Lake Shore Drive for a quick, impromptu mini-version of “Bike The Drive.” Convenient as LSD was already shut down for the real Bike The Drive event today!