Another mug from my last soda kiln for Mugshot Monday…
headed to Schaumburg this weekend for the Schaumburg Prairie Arts Festival
on Saturday & Sunday from 10:00am-5:00pm.

It’s been a busy week…
with labeling & stamping postcards on top of everything else.

Another batch dropped off in the mailbox… and not a moment too soon
as my next art fair is next weekend in Schaumburg!

Had a great time yesterday hanging out with my talented metalsmith friend Sarah Chapman at the ONE OF A KIND SHOW. Her work is amazing… great designs, incredible craftsmanship, fun textures, beautiful stones… and great shadows too!!!

Always a great stop while in Minneapolis, the Northern Clay Center is much like Chicago’s Lillstreet. A great gallery, classrooms and studio spaces. In the special gallery space, they had this great wall piece… loving the textures, patterns, shapes and how well they all work together to make one great piece by Chotsani Elaine Dean!

Also in the Northern Clay Gallery, a fun display of how ceramic pieces have been employed with some hydroponic “farming.” A great use of terra cotta… but who’s going to really eat all that swiss chard?!

And then we went back into the Studio Artist area and I was IMMEDIATELY taken by this amazing chess set made by sculptor Alessandro Gallo. You know I’ll be sharing this with my kids this summer during Chess Camp!

Okay, look closely… that chess set is hanging on the wall… and HUGE!!! Each square is probably a good 7-inches or so! And oh, but wait there’s more... they each have a hook on the backside that slips into the slot on each of the squares! AMAZING concept!!!

And there was a smaller chess set by another artist… this one seems imminently more do-able for my Summer camp kids!

But the thing that made me laugh the hardest while at Northern Clay…
was this sign… this display… this sponge. It’s truly INSPIRED!!!

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With one full day of NCECA behind me… Sarah and I started out our Gallery Tour Day at The Nevica Project Pop-Up Gallery. It was funny that the very first pieces I saw as awe walked into the space was this beautiful trio by my pottery-friend Mike Stumbras. Love his technique, glazes & surface decoration.

At The Norway House Gallery, they had a nice little show of work…
but it was really these large wall pieces by Ben Bates that caught my attention!

Among all of the many gallery spaces we stopped off at, was this space filled with pots made by the potters who put on the St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour. Sarah and I go to the tour every year… so it was fun to see their work again in a slightly different format!

At one point, we saw there was a gallery listed on the NCECA gallery tour list that featured pottery with a bicycle theme!!! What?!!! So of course we just HAD to go to that one. Turns out it was located inside a actual bike shop right off the side of the Greenway Bike Route. Here’s a cup I picked up while were there… a simple yellow cup with a spare inner tube wrap by Kate Fisher!!!

At Lakes & Legends, we arrived and saw a entire glass window FULL of cups & mugs!!! Turn the corner, and there was another one too! Yep, two full windows FULL of wonderful pottery!!! So much fun seeing so much pottery all in one place.

It was a beautiful day in Minneapolis… and a beautiful day FULL of pottery! Too many stops, locations & galleries to show them all. In hindsight, I wish I would have done a better job capturing images from every stop along our way! Sarah and I had an amazing day of touring the NCECA Galleries!

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For many years, my friends Cory & Amy have been singing the praises of Hooey Batiks! And this weekend I finally got a good chance to chat with Jill of Hooey Batiks. As I not only got my first Hooey T-Shirt… but we also started planning a fun collaboration project as Jill will be joining us this summer for ART IN THE GARDEN!!!

You know how I LOVE a good collaboration.. and a beautiful tie-dye…
errr, well Batik… but who’s counting?!

Part of the PRAIRIE VIEW ARTS INVITATIONAL is a benefit for their Youth OutReach Program. So they do a lot of events, fundraising, raffles, bake sales & more for them. They also set up this really cute Angel Wing photo-op… which was just around the corner from my booth. Great fun to watch people stopping by to take their Selfies!

And although my parents have pretty much “retired” from the art fair circuit, and I’m now flying solo, it was great to have them stop by to say Hi to everyone! I know I love having them around… and so many of my other artist friends look forward to seeing them too. My parents have a huge part of my art fair operation for so many years, and now everyone asks about them if they’re not there! Well, that, and my Mom’s homemade cookies!!!

The PRAIRIE VIEW ARTS INVITATIONAL is a great little art fair out in Naperville. Great people putting together a great event… so many little perks along the way! One of my favorite “perks” is that they offer up HomeStays for their artists! They set us up with a local who is willing to set us up for the night. So much better to drive 4 minutes to their house instead of 90 minutes back home! And then another 4 minutes back the next morning.

This year I got set-up with the same HomeStay as last year. Unfortunately, my host found out that she was going to be out-of-town this weekend. However, she was gracious enough to give me a key to her house and welcomed be stay there by myself. A beautiful huge house all to myself?! I left her a little gift, but sadly didn’t get to see her this time around.

So a HUGE THANK YOU to Ann for letting me use her place this weekend!

If you come out to Naperville today for the art fair, you’ll also see some beautiful stained glass pieces by Retta Hentschel… she’s my neighbor this time around!!!

Ready for a great Saturday at the PRAIRIE VIEW ARTS INVITATIONAL
today until 4:00pm. I’ve restocked the shelves… and these are the last of the new sgraffito pieces!!! For now any way… pretty sure I’ll be making more!!!