This morning’s sunrise was speckled with clouds.
So many colors mixed together in a random, haphazard pattern.
Kinda like a calico cat.

Clouds over the city. Dark.

Clouds over the lake. Scattered with dark colors.

A low line of clouds with tranquil reflection over Belmont Harbor.

This weekend is the Andersonville Arts & Design Weekend. And I have been invited to be the Guest Artist for the weekend at City Olive. The festivities begin tomorrow… so I went in tonight to deliver my pottery and set-up. It’s a fun collaboration & mixture of fine olive oils & fancy foods alongside of my pottery.

Andersonville Arts and Design Weekend at City Olive
5644 North Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois 60660

Friday, October 10th, 2014 – 11:00am-9:00pm
Saturday, October 11th, 2014 – 11:00am-5:00pm
Sunday, October 12th, 2014 – 12:00pm-5:00pm

Karen has a beautiful store full of wonderfully edible & foodie-favorite surprises. For this special weekend, there is now a wide selection of pottery to choose from as well. All completely usable… food-safe, dishwasher-safe, microwave-safe, etc. So be sure to stop by City Olive for some fun this weekend. And to grab yourself some of my pottery – especially if you couldn’t make it out to any of my Summer Art Fairs!

Here’s a quick preview of some of the pottery “up for grabs” at City Olive this weekend…

I hope you can make it in this weekend. If you do, be sure to say “Hi” to Karen for me…
and tell her that your heard about it from my blog. Thanks.

This morning may have been a Lunar Eclipse…
but I kind of think that tonight’s Full Moon was more exciting?!
Sure, that Lunar Eclipse was cool and all, but seemed to drag on just a bit…
Whereas this Full Moon was bright, dramatic & ever-changing
as the clouds floated by.

With a big sky “event” this morning, you know I “had to” go out to see it & and take photos.
But who knew it would last so long???

I assumed the Lunar Eclipse would do its thing in a matter of minutes. Much like a sunrise or sunset can change & finish in minutes. Wrong. This Lunar Eclipse lasted well over an hour!!! Who knew?!!!

Here are the “early” photos of that shadowed dot in the sky when it was still VERY dark out.

And if you turn your back and look the other way… this is the beginning of today’s sunrise.
Okay, I must admit… for awhile I was looking out this way for the moon & eclipse.
Didn’t see it… wondered if it was already “eclipse-covered” and I would see it when the shadow passed??? Or maybe I would see it better if I turned around and faced the right direction like I should?… look West!!!  duh.

So… as the morning progressed, the sun continued to rise and the eclipse seemed to linger.
A lot longer than I thought it would. Good thing I jumped out of bed and raced out earlier than normal to catch it, huh?!!!

Meanwhile… again… if you turned back around and diverted your attention from the Lunar Eclipse that seemed to be lasting forever, the sunrise wasn’t too shabby either.

So I shipped off another box of mugs to Pam Kinsmith for her upcoming “Finding Forever Cup Exhibition.” Thanks to some of our Lillstreet potters for donating their work to the worthy cause. The deadline has been extended if you are a potter who would also like to donate to the cause. Check out the “Finding Forever” website for more information.

Adam August

Katie Biderbost

Lester Arguelles

Susan Messer McBride

Steve Acoba

Marian Castro-Palanyk

Lisa Harris

Cassandra Deiters – one of my students this session

Tonight I did a LOT of stamping. Turning “plain” cylinders into stamped forms which will become mugs soon. So now they’ll sit under plastic wrap until I have time to trim them. Once they’re trimmed, they’ll get handles attached and some color slip accents. Then onto the kilns for bisquing & glazing…

So now they’re set aside, under wraps, drying up a bit… waiting to be trimmed.

So Bowl #1 of my class demo was the “plain” smooth one. The bowl that was the basis for all bowls to follow. Tonight I trimmed the bowls and had “trouble” leaving it plain. It’s so not me.  So I figured a little carving here & there couldn’t hurt, right?

So I started to carve out a pattern using the rounded edge of my loop trimming tool. I started with a smaller one for the first couple rows, and then switched to a slightly larger one for the rest of the carving marks.

So much better than the “plain” bowl, right??? And thanks to Amy Higgason of Pigeon Road Pottery for the carving & detailing inspiration. She came and did a quickie workshop for my class a few session s ago and taught everyone this technique. So easy. So beautiful. So much better than a “plain” bowl.

And if a full coverage of loop tool carvings is good… why not add a knick of the sgraffito tool in the center of each one? Because you can… and I did. Thanks again Amy.