It was another cloudy morning. Tons of potential… could go either way…

Turns out the clouds were a bit “stronger” than expected and they decided to stick around all morning. Luckily, they did pretty incredible things as they reflected off the Lake.

Towards the end of my ride, the sun finally made it out. A low-flying glow in the sky adding a shimmer across the water.

And as if that weren’t enough…
I also found FREE MONEY on the lakefront this morning. Whoo-hoo!!!

And now back to the art fair…
a quick shower, breakfast and I’m back to “Art In The Garden.”

It was so much fun “unveiling” the collaboration pieces that I’ve been working on with Cory McCrory today at “Art In The Garden.” Watching people figure out the visual puns & appreciating the witty humor.

So glad that a few of them have already found happy homes!!!
I hope they bring smiles to their new owners for years to come… George actually laughed out loud when he figured out the “racy” tile representing Butterfly Bush. Yep… let your imagination wander for a bit…

We had a beautiful day today at “Art In The Garden.”
Surprisingly good weather & even better customers. Thank you to everyone who stopped by to say hello… and took some time to meet the artists and enjoy Amy’s garden!!! Don’t forget… we’re playing in the garden again tomorrow from 10:00am-5:00pm. C’mon by…

Day Two : Sunday, August 31st – 10:00am-5:00pm

At the home & gardens of metalsmith Amy Taylor.
1205 Hutchings Avenue,  Glenview,  IL 60025
One block west of Waukegan Road between Lake Street & Glenview Road.
More specifically between Grove Street (at a light) and McLean Court.

So we’ve been “teasing” you for a long time now… and we’ve been working on these since mid-June. And now the big weekend is finally here and Cory & I are ready to show off our Collaboration Project.

I approached my friend Cory McCrory back in June during the Hinsdale Fine Art Fair. We were both scheduled to be part of Amy Taylor’s Grassroots Art Fair. And with my marketing background, I knew that we needed a “hook” of some sort. So we devised a plan… if we work together on a Limited Edition set of Collaboration pieces, we’ll have something fun to blog & post, as well as something really fun to show-off at “Art In The Garden.”

By now you may have figured it out… visual puns of some popular garden plants.
Each of Cory’s tiles are handbuilt with paperclay to represent the plant name. All of them whimsical, some with a twisting play on words… and others just a little bit racy. My part of the collaboration was to make textured tiles for the surrounding space. Pretty much the field tiles of green are surrounding the art tile in the center… kinda like “Art In The Garden” of green tiles!!!

So here’s the BIG REVEAL!!! You’ve waited long enough…
and now they’re all ready for their Big Debut this weekend.

“Art In The Garden : A Grassroots Art Fair”
Saturday, August 30th & Sunday, August 31st – 10:00am-5:00pm.

1205 Hutchings Avenue,  Glenview,  IL 60025
One block west of Waukegan Road between Lake Street & Glenview Road.
More specifically between Grove Street (at a light) and McLean Court.

So here they are… wait no longer…
And remember, they will be at “Art In The Garden” while quantities last.
First come, first served. And when they’re gone, they’re gone!!!

1. Black-Eyed Susan … she was the one that started it all.
What started out as just a play on words for my favorite flowers… changed and now this!

2. Foxglove

3. Bleeding Heart

4. Hens & Chicks

5. Spider Plant

6. Butterfly Bush

7. Queen Anne’s Lace

8. Poison Ivy

9. Dinosaur Food

10. Black-Eyed Susan

11. Spider Flower

12. Butterfly Bush

13. Poison Ivy

14. Queen Anne’s Lace … actually, it’s more like Queen Anne’s Lacey Panties!!!

15. Bleeding Heart

But wait… that’s only fifteen?!!!… I thought there were originally sixteen?!!!

Okay, so here’s the deal…
Remember back a couple weeks when I was kind of “gloating” that I had made almost DOUBLE the number of tiles I needed to finish my part? Well, I was wrong. I never said I was good at math.

Somehow I had determined that I needed about 450 tiles for my part of the collaboration with Cory. Not sure how. But when I was glazing & loading the kiln I was “sure” that I had made almost twice as many as I needed.

Good thing.

Turns out I needed 768 tiles to go along with the 16 center tiles that Cory had made.
With 48 tiles per board, that makes a total of 768 tiles.
Now remember back to my previous post… I had made & glazed 724 tiles.
Which I thought was MORE than enough. WRONG!!! Again… NOT good with math!!!

So I had to get a little creative with one of them… as I had just enough of the green glazed tiles to do 15 collaboration pieces! So one of them now has a collection of soda-fired tiles instead. And I kinda love how it brings out the color of the Fox and his gloves!!! Who knows… I might “need” to keep this one for myself?!

16. Foxglove

It is good luck if you get a large garden “visitor” in your booth while you’re setting up for an art fair called “Art In The Garden”, right????

As of today we have 1,812 Facebook Fans…
I think we need an “Overture.” Any suggestions Mr. Tchaikovsky?…

All of tiles are finally glued onto our Collaboration Pieces.
Seven hundred & sixty-eight tiles… that’s a LOT of tiles & a LOT of adhesive!!!

Drying now while I start to pack-up for “Art In The Garden.”
And then a quick photo-shoot of the finished pieces for The Big Reveal.
Come see them in person tomorrow!!!

After two days a GORGEOUS…
this morning there was no sign of a sunrise ever happening.
Just a lot of clouds. And a lot of wind.

Let’s just say, the ride back home was a LOT of fun.
The first half riding south… not so much.

Okay, so everything has finally been glued in place…
and now they’re all drying. With a fan blowing on them so it goes faster???
Until I pack them up, I have a dining room table COVERED with tiled fun agina!!!