Okay, it’s kinda dark, but… I stopped into the studio tonight to do a bit of work, and to start cooling my kiln. I pulled the peeps and took a little peek inside. Here’s a quick look into the kiln where you can see the cone pack! Looking good so far…

With all of the turmoil over the past few days of what became ELECTION WEEK… how did you survive the stress?!

How did YOU look at the situation???

It’s amazing the things you find when you’re out exploring with no plan. Somewhere along the way, my Friday bike ride took me further south of the Museum… where I ran across this amazing art installation. Large silver concave curved pieces planted in the ground. The sun gleaming & shadows bouncing were mesmerizing!

And when one is down by the Museum of Science & Industry, you should always take a few minutes to explore the hidden treasure of the Japanese Garden just south of the museum. A beautiful & serene space… still preserved from the Columbian Exposition Worlds Fair! Complete with some STUNNING Japanese maple trees in full Fall colors!!!

Last Friday’s “bike escape” was south along the lakefront trail… and then a quick little side diversion to the Museum of Science & Industry. It was so quiet down there… barely another person around the museum. Made these stoic statues seem oddly appropriate.

These past few days of INCREDIBLE weather has been simple amazing!!! Sure, I’ve been trying to stay focused in the studio getting ready for my kiln firing. But with the sun shining and temps in the 70’s what’s a guy to do. The struggle is real. So I tried to sneak out a couple hours each day to enjoy the weather & natural beauty all around us… setting out on my bike again & again to explore the lakefront trails. The Fall colors have been amazing and seem to have stuck around a lot longer than normal.

Thank you for sharing Mother Nature!

While yesterday was a historic day towards getting America out of jeopardy, today is a sad day for those of us who loved JEOPARDY. After a very open battle with stage four pancreatic cancer, TV host Alex Trebek passed away today.

I have long appreciated having him at the helm of the best game show ever… and I remember as a child watching and not quite understanding the premise. What do you mean, you give me the answer and I give you the question??? A sad day for game shows. A sad day for television. He left us an amazing legacy, a world record and over three decades of great memories.

Thank you Alex.

So this all started with an ongoing thread of text messages. With the virus ramping up again as predicted, many people are taking their temperatures throughout the day. Just checking to make sure everything is still good. But the question apparently is… “WHERE do I store my thermometer?!”

In some Gary Pottery apparently…

And then the “trend” seemed to be catching on…
and showing up on the text thread…

But then the question was… Where are the apples???
Oh, right there next to the mini vase… now called a thermometer holder!

And some people seemed to have too many apples… which look yummy...
so they needed an additional “apple bowl”

And then another entry in the mix…
not quite sure that thermometer will tell you if you have the flu or not… but it will tell you if you’re poultry, lamb or smoked ham!!!

But again the question… Where are the apples?!

Apparently this time… not “quite” an apple, or at least not a natural apple… but the faux apple does look pretty great on this large green stamped platter!

As the trend of apples & Gary Pottery seemed to be catching on… another entry of an Apple with “one of Gary’s rare cat steins.” Well played…

To which I quickly responded… “That cat stein is SO RARE that I’d be lying… err, make that fe-lyin’… to say that I’ve ever made one of those.”

Matthew’s response was… “But how do you explain this?”

Apparently I had “signed” the bottom of this??? HA!!!
I had just forgotten & blocked this one out of my memory!!!

As I’m finally putting myself to bed, I just remembered I didn’t finish the day with a shot of the kiln as I put it to bed too! Sure, I may have gotten distracted by SNL… and their take on today’s historic events… but here it is. A glowing hot soda kiln. Turned off. Suddenly quiet. Cooling tomorrow. Can’t wait to see what kind of “magic” might have happened inside. Cuz’ this looked pretty magical at the end on the outside too!!!

A few hours into the kiln firing, and it was time to put it into “reduction”… which means an imbalance of the air-to-gas ratio. You reduce the proportion of air to help seal-up the porous pots, solidify them and make them vitrified. It’s also when you start to see some fun flames shooting out of the kiln!