A couple bricks removed to help with cooling so I can unload the kiln tonight. Can’t see much… but that one little snippet looks pretty good so far.

Looks like Julie celebrated Easter today by baking this beautiful pineapple-upside-down-cake… and served it on a handmade platter by you know who! I’m sure it must have been a hit at their family celebration! Thanks Julie for sharing your festivities with the rest of us!

Another handmade Easter Basket fulfilling its holiday duties! Thanks Keith for sharing your basket. Hope you have plenty of leftover jelly beans for the week to come… except for those black ones…. yuck!!!

Okay, so I’m supposed to be home today “starting” to work on my taxes. But when it’s this nice outside.. how can I really be expected to stay inside??? Right? So I “might” have stepped outside for a hot minute for an afternoon bike ride along the lakefront. And it was glorious… and my favorite little blue scilla flowers are in full bloom along the way!

While I was in my studio all day yesterday firing the soda kiln, I had plenty of time to do some “Spring Cleaning”… which included pulling out another batch of reclaimed clay from my orange bin. Piling it up on a large plaster bat to help absorb the extra moisture. It will take a few days until it stiffens up enough to start wedging my new free reclaimed clay!!! My favorite kind of clay… did I mention “FREE”???

HAPPY EASTER… or whatever holiday you might be celebrating this weekend! Take some time today relax, reflect & enjoy the day. The weather looks pretty perfect… now I just wish I have more of these peanut butter cup eggs!!!

The weather has definitely taken a turn for the better here in Chicago! After a stretch of cold, clouds & rain… we finally have a forecast for incredible warm Spring weather for the next week or so! And after firing inside all day yesterday… it felt great to start today outside on my bike!!! Good chance that will happen again later this afternoon… allegedly…

Always exciting towards the end of a soda firing. The kiln is in reduction, and the soda mixture has been inserted … so it’s flying around inside wherever the flames go. Leaving some soda-glaze magic along the way. Can’t wait to see what this FIRE did to my pots. Fingers crossed.

Glowing orange… the kiln continues to heat up even as it is placed in “body reduction”. Still a few hours to go… but always fun to play with fire!!!

Bricked up & closed for the night. It was a “quick sleep” and now I’m already back at the studio firing!!! Bricks in, peeps in & ignition started!!! An early start to a long day for firing… plus random studio “spring cleaning” projects throughout the day!