Last Tuesday in my pottery class, some of my students ended the night with a little stamp-making seminar! We talked about how to make them, what to keep in mind design-wise… and how they should just make a LOT of stamps with the hope that they’ll run across a few that they love using!

With a hazy-foggy start to the day… the skyline was engulfed in fog & dappled clouds.

Celebrating the Fourth of July with my annual road trip down to Central Illinois to visit great friends in the little town of Chenoa. The town does a great job hosting a very Norman Rockwell-ish small town celebration… parade, house decorating, corn dogs, lemon shake-ups, cotton candy & SPECTACULAR fireworks! A wonderful “escape” to get away from everything going on these days!

A crazy-cool tree I found with these wacky spikes popping out everywhere!!!

And then the EXCITEMENT started!!!

And yes, Chenoa is definitely stepping up their game…
and here’s their ONE traffic light… which is actually just a blinking red stop sign light!

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Working on another set of porcelain mugs… stamping patterns & textures into them.
So here’s the before & after shots, as well as the stamps that did all of the magic!

Mug One –

Mug Two –

Mug Three –

Mug Four –

Mug Five –

Mug Six –

Mug Seven –

Mug Eight –

Mug Nine –

Mug Ten –

Mug Eleven –

Mug Twelve –

Mug Thirteen –

Mug Fourteen –

Mug Fifteen –

Mug Sixteen –

Mug Seventeen –

Mug Eighteen –

Mug Nineteen –

Mug Twenty –

Mug Twenty-One –

So for now they’re all wrapped up under plastic… waiting at least another night until they stiffen up enough for me to start trimming the bottoms. Once trimmed, they will all start getting handles to become mugs!

 

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When the sky is splashed with BIG colors…
sometimes a BIG photo is required to capture it… or two?!!!

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This morning was so much calmer than yesterday’s big stormin’ bike ride… cooler, calmer and a LOT more colorful. Another beautiful sunrise sweeping across the horizon.

Almost as cool as rusty metal… crusty old weathered barn board is pretty amazing too.
The way the wood withers away, the knots are revealed, and the paint flakes off.
Wonderfully weathered textures! So cool.

So yesterday we set-out for a long bike ride through the rural farms of the far West suburbs of Chicago. It was a very HOT & sweaty day… 80 miles in over 80-degrees… with lots of rolling hills, blue skies and beautiful barns.

 

Somewhere along the way, the storm clouds moved in, the radar alert system was ringing our phones and we needed to find shelter quick. We rolled into Leroy Oakes Forest Preserve in St. Charles… and ducked under a big party tent from a wedding the day before.

My friend Chris advised that under the tent was not the best idea…
but the sky opened up and the deluge began!!!

About a minute later, the winds kicked in and ripped the tent right out of the ground, flopping in the breeze as we ran indoors for safety! We were dripping wet… safe… laughing… and that effectively cancelled the last fifteen miles or so of our ride!

Thanks to Beckie’s husband Jim for driving over to “save us” from the storm!

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