The beautiful old facade of the Medinah Temple downtown. I remember being a little kid and going down there every year to see some Russian Circus performing in this beautiful building… back when circuses were circuses… with overly-trained dancing bears in human clothing that even way back then I knew wasn’t quite right!

Celebrating another TEXTURE TUESDAY with a little sightseeing downtown… enjoying the CITY while looking up & looking down!

A beautiful start to another beautiful day. A bit chilly & still windy, but you can definitely feel Spring in the air. Nothing too dramatic at the start, but soon enough a large cloud blew in at just the right time for a little morning sky-show!

Celebrating another TEXTURE TUESDAY! Adding some accents of colored flashing slip onto each stamp. This slip color will change to shades of orange when soda-fired!!!

Getting ready to start trimming a bunch of small saucers… pretty much a little mindless production task. Luckily I love trimming… always have… especially now with my DiamondCore Trimming Tools!

Adding handles & making mugs on another MUGSHOT MONDAY! Another batch of my “wheelthrown-handbuilt-combo” mugs with textured patterns all-around!

The more I make of these, the more I’m lovin’ them! And as I’m lovin’ them more… I’m kinda thinking they need a new groovy name?! Any suggestions???

Pretty excited when I got home from biking to see the very first crocus blooming in my front yard! Love the vibrant purple color… and LOVE that I’ve never planted crocus & yet somehow this little cutie found it’s way into my street corner planter box!

Sure, it looks calm enough out there… but… I went for an afternoon bike ride along the lakefront and was hit with a crazy strong headwind as I was pedaled south. Considered turning around a couple times… but forged onward on my aero-bars! The ride back home was AMAZING… now with tailwinds gusting up to 35mph!!! Whoo-hoo!!!

HAPPY MUGSHOT MONDAY! And I’m pretty excited this Monday to share these two mugs. Part of my never-ending quest to find a few good glaze recipes that work well at both cone six oxidation & cone ten reduction. Looks like this one works… a bright lime green at cone 6, and a pretty grass green at cone 10. I would have a lot fewer buckets in my studio if I could get them all to do double-duty like this!!!

Any glaze recipe recommendations?

Looks like my Thanksgiving Cactus is re-blooming… a few months off schedule… but still a welcome surprise. Not nearly as stunning as it was last Fall when it was overwhelmed with blooms. This time there are only three blossoms… but I’ll take ’em “whenever” they show up!