In addition to wheelthrowing plates in class tonight… one of my students asked about making handbuilt plates. Sure, it’s a wheelthrowing class, but I’m always up for a good “Demo-On-Demand”!!! So I taught them how to throw a slab, add a little texture and drape it into a slump mold. It was my first time using this mold… kind of excited to see how it turns out. Not bad for an impromptu plate demo!!!

Tonight in my Beginner’s pottery class, we tackled throwing plates again… and then BY POPULAR DEMAND we made some stamps for them to use next week! It was all their idea… really… I was just there to encourage & teach!!! Let the addiction begin…

Nothing like biking along the lakefront all afternoon when it’s a shocking 85-degrees outside!!! Blue skies, warm breezes & sleeveless!!!

Sometimes this is the best four-letter word!

More beautiful Spring flowers… enjoying the fragrance & bright whiteness of these crabapple tree blossoms! Beautiful when fully in bloom… but also fun when the petals start to fall and it looks like it’s snowing!

But on the other hand… THIS is never a good sign!
Pedaling along, minding my own business… and then you come upon this! Apparently it got a bit windy last night?!… which didn’t bode well for this tree that had apparently become hollowed out over the years.

After last night’s Pink Super Moon… it was nice to see it still hanging around this morning! Sunrise on one side, moon on the other. Either way you looked… it was pretty darn cool.

It was wonderful to wake up to warm temperatures this morning… not having to pile on the layers like Sunday when it was 45-degrees all day! Sure, it would have felt a lot warmer if we got a sun-shiny morning… but instead we got colorful layers of clouds shrouding the sun along with some golden drama!

Finally got around to loading another bisque kiln. Not my tightest loading… but still pretty excited to have a lot of my new “wheeltrown-handbuilt-combo-mugs” on the first two layers! I’ve got a soda-firing coming up in a few weeks! So it’s time to move it along… soon enough the glazing will begin!

And it is always fun to see how close you can get to the top! Packing, loading, stacking shelves… I enjoy when it looks “so close” and you need to make sure the lid will still close!

One of my best friends from high school got married after college, moved around a bit and ended up in St. Louis. She was home visiting her Mom a few weeks back… and happened to see these in front of a house in Elk Grove Village! She was excited & confused… is that Gary’s pottery in front of someone’s house???

So when Anna called a couple weeks ago, she asked about them… a weird coincidence that she would just “happen upon” this… AND recognize them as mine… as she was cutting through a subdivision not even close to her Mom’s place?!

Turns out she drove past my friend Chris’ place in EGV… proud owner of one of my stamped & soda-fired totem poles! And now, a great “small world” story with my friends Anna & Chris!