One of my best friends in the ceramic world, and an occasional partner-in-crime, Cory McCrory is definitely one of My Talented Feriends. We’ve been buddies for several years now having met during the Hinsdale Fine Arts Festival. Our booths were an aisle away, but close enough to see the wonders she was hawking. And I fell victim $$$… repeatedly!!! I now have more Cory McCrory pieces than I need… and have quite the “collection” set up at my place. Some have even referred to it as the Cory McCrory Shrine. And here’s why… her work is incredible, always with a wonderful sense of whimsy, a little off-center, with colors, textures and patterns… and SHE’s great too!!!

Last year we worked on some collaboration pieces for “Art In The Garden.”
And there’s a good chance it may happen again… hint, hint…

According to Cory…
It comes from the everyday. How little control we have over life and the way we deal with its challenges.  In my pots I try to poke a little fun, while where it comes from can be very deep and thought provoking. My work is made with paper stoneware, multi-fired oxidation to cone 7. I use slips, underglazes, terrasig and glaze.  I prefer a brown stoneware over white clays as I feel it better represents my subject. The beauty of a handmade pot is in the sensory driven exchange a person can have with it. It pleases me to make you smile.”

For more details or to see more of Cory’s whimsical work, click here for her website.

And a quick shot of one of my favorites… notice I said MINE!!!
Yep, this beauty is part of my own Cory McCrory Collection. So needless to say, this specific teapot will not be for sale at the show, but she might have others similar if you’re as lucky as me!!!

Click here for updates, photos and to follow “Art In The Garden” on Facebook.

The mastermind and gracious host for our Grassroots Art Fair is my friend Amy Taylor. I’ve known Amy for several years and have quite the collection of her pieces that I wear on a regular basis. You may have met her already on the art fair circuit… or as a Guest Artist at one of my December Holiday Home Shows. Her work is simple & clean, well-designed.. and often with a sense of whimsy! She has a tendency to work with some unique materials which I LOVE!!! I have two necklaces that are made out of vintage bowling balls. I have another one that is made out of the layers of old paint scraped off the floor at a car manufacturing plant. Crazy cool. Okay, sure… she also makes these beautiful, refined and elegant pieces as well. She’s got it all covered. Something beautiful for everyone!!!

According to Amy…
“My jewelry: is made of 14k and 18k gold and sterling silver. It is completely constructed (no cast elements) with an emphasis on unique hinge work, gemstone color juxtapostions, as well as found objects such as beach glass and rock. My influences are primarily architecture and nature, and my work is clean and simply executed.”

For more information or to see more of Amy’s work, click here for her website.

Click here for updates, photos and to follow “Art In The Garden” on Facebook.

So we’re just under three weeks away… and I’m frantically getting ready for my next art fair. It’s a smaller & more intimate show with great art by some of My Talented Friends. It’s our second year in this quaint garden setting. We had a great show last year, so we’re hoping to make it even better this year! Just a few tents. Talented friends. Great art. None of the hassles of those big shows!

Mark your calendars for the second weekend of September.
Saturday, September 12th & Sunday, September 13th, 2015 : 10:00am-5:00pm

Then stop by the garden to see the artists, chat with my friends and see some great art.
All in a beautiful backyard setting… not a congested city park!

Click here for updates, photos and to follow “Art In The Garden” on Facebook.

Okay so I just purchased two more mugs for The Mug Collection. Sue me.
Yes, I have a “collection” of mugs that have never been used.
Yes, they’re all labeled with the artists names.
Yes, they’re all on some shelves in my kitchen.
And yes… THE SHELVES ARE OVERFLOWING!!!

I definitely need to get more shelves and expand the display space for my ever-growing
Mug Collection. But I just couldn’t resist two more mugs by Julia Galloway!!!

So I added another mug to my already-overflowing-Mug Collection yesterday.
And by “yesterday” I mean BEFORE the crazy microburst storm that rolled through.

Art Fair “trades” are the BEST!!! This mug was made by Sam Mawicke Hostert.
Sam is one of the Monitors & Teachers at Lillstreet Art Center, She was my teaching assistnat for a few sessions. And has now moved on to teaching workshops at the Lillstreet Loft and firing the classroom soda kiln. Her mugs are detailed with precise carving and underglaze inlay. The soda firing atmosphere enhances, alters and “randomizes” the controlled decoration. Each mug is one-of-a-kind. Each one better than the next.

It was a crazy day at the Evanston Lakeshore Art Festival yesterday.
It was another beautiful day until a huge storm rolled through… here’s what it looked like AFTER it blew through and made it out over the Lake.

They announced shortly before 3:00pm that they needed to close the fair and evacuate the park of customers. They all left quickly, and the artists were left to fend for themselves. We were still in our tent as the torrential rains, gale force winds and quarter-sized hail pummeled the fair.

Luckily, we survived the storm with no damage. Just wet & dirty with a lot of pots on the ground… and a green stamped platter that somehow “showed up” in my neighbor’s tent?! Ironically, nothing broke during the storm, but the very first customer AFTER the storm knocked over a miniature vase!

Other artists didn’t fair so well with damaged tents and a couple of them leaving in ambulances. Hopefully the artist directly across from us is doing better after getting a huge gash on his leg from a big piece of broken glass. EMT’s tended to him on-site and he was taken to the hospital for medical attention. There were also tents that collapsed during the storm, like this one of a potter from Seagrove, North Carolina.

During my short drive home from Evanston, there were a lot of trees down.
Uprooted or smashed & broken. Obvious signs that a lot of crazy weather had passed through!

Special thanks to everyone who helped out during the aftermath…
and those who checked in to make sure we were all fine after that crazy storm!!!

Another wonderful video of Korean master potters at work. It shows the entire process from decorating, carving, glazing, loading the kiln, unloading and admiring. The only part it doesn’t show is the initial throwing of the vessel… or any sort of mirth, merriment or Oreo’s?!!! That must be what I’m doing wrong?!…

Click here for the “Icheon Masters” video on Vimeo.

Several of the students in my Tuesday night Beginning & Advanced Beginning Wheelthrowing were more on the “advanced” returning side. As always, I like to customize the 10-week class to their wants & needs. So the first night I ask them what they want and the syllabus is built from that discussion. Along the way, I decided that some of my “returning” beginners needed an extra challenge!!!

So I challenged them to create a dinnerware place setting!!! To step it up and make a few pieces that go together. To make a plan, design a set, discuss visual continuity and so much more. Several of my student took the challenge… and showed off their final results last night during our last class of the session. We talked about having a dinner plate, salad plate, bowl, mug and tumbler. Anything additional was a bonus!

Dave : His set has a wonderful dragonfly illustration he carved into each piece and inlaid with colored slip. Beautifully rendered & well-crafted.

Sara : Her set utilized B-Clay and the way amber celadon so beautifully works with the clay… and just a hint of blue!

Marni : Unfortunately, Marni’s set has a few glazing issues. Her first plate had a much more subtle ombre effect of dark-to-light slip. The waxy white glaze didn’t cover all of her delicate slip work. It seems like the glaze may have been a bit too thick for the rest of her pieces. So they’re a little whiter than she expected, and the slip ombre gradation doesn’t show through as much as we wanted. Still, all-in-all, a beautiful set of “white” dishes.

Jeanette : Her set has a wonderful contrast of black-to-white and matte-to-shiny. Her splatter accents help with her contemporary style. Jeanette also has a slightly “odd” design continuity going on… you can’t quite see it, but let’s just say we’ve got to work on her clean waxing skills in the her next class. There’s a small “fingerprint” of wax on almost every piece where the glaze couldn’t adhere… so there’s a spot of raw clay showing through?! Adorably cute & consistent.

Melissa : After experimenting with marbled clay, Melissa went for it with her set. It’s a marbled combination of B-Clay and Stoneware with Ochre. Then a partial glazing with Josh Green glaze, and a light coat of gerstley borate on the interior. Her set has a wonderful “rustic-ness” to it – what with the earthy clay body and the patina-style glaze. And MORE pieces than were expected.. over achiever!!!

Patty : Her set played with matte black glaze and dramatic “brushstroke” of wax to create a wispy void across the pieces.

Katie : Unfortunately, Katie had a few more pieces still in the kiln. Cooling… but not ready to show off during our last class. I’m sure they will be beautiful with the contrast of Shaner White and Cohen’s Copper Red glaze.

I had a couple more students working on the challenge. Some were struggling. Some just found that life gets in the way of pottery sometimes. One of my students, Vanessa, kind of went off on a wonderful tangent and decided to carve and slip-inlay wonderful designs on all of her pieces. Her labor-intensive technique is illustrating bones, cellular structures and other wonderfully anatomical concepts onto her pieces… like a cranium with all its fissures on the inside of her bowl. She’s still working on them… abd I can’t wait to see the final results.

A huge congratulations to my students who completed their first Dinnerware Challenge. It’s a tough project to stay focused and design a set like this on your first try. I think they all did a wonderful job – and hopefully will continue with this momentum and keep moving forward. Thanks for playing along with my silly little reindeer games!

I’ve driven past this “mural” for years now. It’s gotten a bit beaten up & faded… until someone just recently refreshed it and gave her a bit of a facelift. You gotta love some good graffiti now and again, huh?! Especially when they take time to “care” for it too?!!!

So the ArtReach bricolage in the back hallway at Lillstreet is coming along nicely.
There was a “team” working on it this weekend. Tile. Snip. Break. Glue. Stick. Repeat.
Good to see a few of my shards have made the wall… check out the green eyeball.