For those of you who may have missed MUD & METAL this past Saturday, here’s a quick glimpse of the beautiful metalwork by Amy Taylor. She had quite a few beautiful pieces in my dining room!!! If you’re still looking for holiday gifts, be sure to check out her website or shop on her Etsy page.

Website : http://amytaylorjewelry.com
Etsy : https://www.etsy.com/shop/hingedjewelry

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who stopped by my place yesterday
for the MUD & METAL Holiday Home Show. Me the MUD… Amy the METAL.

We had so much fun playing with so many great people!!! I love knowing that so many pieces are going to good homes, whether as holiday gifts to the loved ones on your list, or to yourselves!!! Special thanks to my friend & talented metalsmith Amy Taylor for joining me again this year. Her work is amazing, she’s so much fun to play with… and I came away with a few new pieces in my “Amy Collection”!!!

Apparently my friend Amy Taylor has been making more than just pendants for our collaboration project. Now there are some new “mud & metal” bracelets in the mix too!!! Be sure to stop by my condo this Saturday 12/12 for MUD & METAL. There will be a limited number of collaboration pieces available… all being revealed Saturday morning!!!

That Amy Taylor is such a tease!!! We can “almost” see what she’s been doing on our collaboration project. Remember, the BIG REVEAL is this Saturday at my place for our annual MUD & METAL Collaborative Holiday Home Show from 10:00am-6:00pm. She’s only making a few… so come early to snatch one up!!!

So my friend Amy Taylor and I have been collaborating on a few pieces… with their BIG DEBUT scheduled for this Saturday 12/12 at my condo for “MUD & METAL : A Collaborative Holiday Home Show”… appropriately named, huh?

Well, anyway… I finished my part of the project, and now Amy is faced with the deadline of finishing in time for this weekend’s big sale. Here’s a quick peek at her part “the metal” … which ironically kinda looks like mud until she polishes it?!

Just showing of “My Talented Friend” Amy Taylor… and her amazing metalwork.
She’ll be joining me this Saturday 12/12 at my place for the Second Holiday Home Show : MUD & METAL. Her work is amazing and it would be the perfect holiday gift for that special someone… or yourself for that matter!

She even has these wonderfully whimsical characters…. they’re ADORBS!!!
Each with a different wacky expression. Some wide-eyed. Some smirking.
I love mine. It makes me smile every time I wear him.

Be sure to stop by my place this Saturday, December 12th between 10:00am-6:00pm.
MUD & METAL : A Collaborative Holiday Home Show
1353 West Rosemont #3, Chicago, Illinois 60660 in the Edgewater Neighborhood

And did I mention that there will be a VERY limited quantity of collaboration pieces???… yep, come see what happens when a potter and a jeweler combine forces and work together!!!

Click here for even more of a preview of Amy’s amazing work.

If you live in the Chicagoland area, and would rather shop in person…
skip the online sale tomorrow morning!!!

Mark your calendar for NEXT Saturday, December 12th and my Second Holiday Home Show. We’re only a couple weeks away from Christmas so it’s the perfect time to check some names off your holiday gift list. “MUD & METAL” will feature my pottery, as well as beautiful, handmade jewelry by my friend Amy Taylor. There will even be a few collaboration pieces merging both MUD & METAL!!!

Click here to see more of Amy Taylor’s beautiful metalwork.

‘Tis the season... to support the local artists, your neighborhood businesses and other small stores who are part of your local community. Shop direct with the maker. Make their holiday more successful, and your holiday gifts more meaningful. Those “big box stores” won’t be selling wonderful one-of-a-kind, handmade products. Your local artists & craftsmen will be.

We appreciate your business. We appreciate your support. Thank you.

Always fun to see the uber-talented Sarah Chapman. Tonight was her Trunk Show at the Lillstreet Gallery. Beautiful metalwork… and an incredible hot fudge & marshmallow sundae afterwards with Sarah. oops… did I mention the EXTRA hot fudge too???

Click here to see more incredible metalwork on Sarah’s website!

Currently on display in The Gallery at Lillstreet Art Center is one of the crazy-cool “exploded” pots by Steven Young Lee. I’m not sure that I understand the whole “concept” behind them… but they’re pretty darn impressive!!!

First off… just throwing a vessel that large with porcelain. Challenging enough.
Second… to carve such an intricate, detailed & layered image on the entire pot. Wow.
But then to have the kahunas to “explode” it… and still get it to hold its form… kinda.
Not to mention the perfect glazing… and those wonderful drips hanging on! C’mon.

Back in the day, when Steve was one of my wheelthrowing instructors at the old Lill Street Art Center location, he made functional pots. (Still does, but he’s more known for these now.) He was one of the best instructors I had there. Very specific, encouraging, and EXPECTED you to do the class demo project every single week. He would demo it one night, and then we had to come to class a week later with our version of the same. He told us right there on Day One of class that if we didn’t want to “participate” in the class demo “homework” assignments we might as well switch classes right there & then. Great teacher who has since moved on to be the Artist Resident Director at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana. And is now making these crazy-cool pots… and getting quite famous at the same time!!! Well, in the pottery world any ways.

I’m just not sure that I get it. Sorry Steve.

Steve makes beautiful pots, carves incredible imagery into them and then “explodes” on purpose! I do appreciate the craftsmanship and attention-to-detail. I even love the wonderful glaze drips hanging on. I know there’s something very “conceptual” going on here. But I think I would still rather see the beautiful pot without the “explosion.” But that’s just me. Obviously a LOT of people “get it.” He’s quite popular in the ceramic collector’s world… and will displaying his work this weekend at SOFA Chicago. So it’s got to be good, right?!

According to Ceramic Arts Daily…
Throughout much of his work, Lee embraces the irregularities and mishaps that generally are seen as making an object worthless. The artist often intentionally cracks pieces or fires them to the point of breaking. In some cases he carves imagery on the inside of the vessel as well as the outside, letting viewers know that they are actually supposed to be able to see the interior. Other times he fills in the cracks with a textured mortar that is then covered in gold leaf. Lee thus challenges the identity of the vessel as a functional object meant to contain something. Indeed, the idea of containment—or lack thereof—is a key component in all of Lee’s work. Transgressing boundaries of all types—geographic, cultural, visual, functional—Lee allows a spilling out of meanings as diverse as the experiences that inspired them.

For more about Steve Lee and his incredible ceramic work, click here for his website.

And if you’d like to see this wonderfully dripping & broken pot in person, there’s a Closing Reception at Lillstreet Art Center tomorrow night. Friday, November 6th. You’ll even get to me Steve Lee… and ask him for yourself about what’s going on here!