Don’t you just hate when you forget to wire a platter off the bat… and then let it dry far too long to a very stiff leatherhard… and then still try to wire it off so you can trim it?! I thought I could do it… spinning it on the wheel while I pulled the wire tool through slowly & very, very taut. But then THIS happened… so much for this platter!!! And so it goes… into the reclaim pile!!!

Now that’s MY kind of museum… I could sit there for days!!!

So I saw a random post on Instagram over the weekend about a basic potter’s challenge… for newbies & more advanced throwers. One pound of clay, perfect cylinders, four inches tall with just four pulls. Not a bad way to start the morning…

One of my all-time favorite trees… stunning Redbud Trees in full bloom along the lakefront bike trail. I love how flowers that grow along all of the branches… as well as the graceful sweeping & arching shapes the branches make. A beautiful area full of Spring colors & natural beauty. It doesn’t get much better than this!!!

Always fun to see what improvement have been made to the lakefront. Like this new pedestrian bridge that seemed to “pop-up” over the winter. It crosses over Lake Shore Drive giving better lakefront access for those on the South Side. A cool blue bridge & beautiful blue skies!

A colorful contrast of colors & textures. With shiny green leaves on crusty wooden vines… and colorful crabapple flowers in stark contrast to the beautiful blue skies!

The beautiful South Shore Cultural Center on the south side of Chicago… kinda where the bike trail ends… so it makes a nice place to refuel & to turn around to head back home!

Blue skies. Warm breezes. Another great day of pedaling along the lakefront.

A colorful splash of Spring colors along the bike trail. I always love when the crabapple trees are in full bloom… and then later when the petals fall off and flutter to the ground like colorful snow!

This week in my SURFACE DECORATION class… we did a bit of simple faceting. Basically throwing “thick-ish” walled cylinders, slicing through them… and in some cases, re-throwing from the inside to bulge them out a bit. We also did some throwing with marbled clay… but my hands were too gooey with three colors of clay to get any good photos! Maybe after we do a little trimming to reveal the marbling better???