Tonight we had a very special guest who joined us for class. My teaching assistant Susan brought a friend of hers who is visiting from Sweden. They met a few months back when they both attended a workshop at La Meridiana in Italy. It was so much fun to have her in class to share stories, pottery experiences… and she even brought a bowl all the way from Sweden for the bowl exchange!!!

Saga Johnsson hung out with us for the night sharing her path, meeting my students, touring my studio & Lillstreet Art Center. At one point (after cheesecake) she sat down at the wheel to throw a couple quick bowls. It’s always so much fun to watch other people throwing. It’s mesmerizing for me every time!

Later, Saga stepped aside and shared some more of her story with images from home, her studio and her body of work. She showed off her pottery she “sells” for a living, the pieces she plays with to express herself, her kids, her chickens, her workshop photos at La Meridiana, and so much more. Ahhh… the beauty of a tablet packed full of photos!!!

Here’s a quick excerpt from her Etsy site…

I live and work full-time as a ceramic artist/ studio potter in the beautiful countryside of Österlen, SkÃ¥ne in Sweden. I have a studio and a shop next to my house where I also run a small Bed & Breakfast. I started out doing art (painting, drawings and sculptures) 19 years ago… (time does fly by when your having fun! ) The last few (8) years my main focus has been mainly focused on ceramic. I love the way clay challenges me and always let me discover new and exciting things about my material and about my self.

And I loved that Saga was so willing to share. She instantly “fit in” and became part of my class for the night. She has such a great energy about her. I had a great time hanging with her. Maybe I need to plan a little vacation to Sweden?… I hear there’s a great Bed & Breakfast there???… with wheels!!!

Here’s a quick peek at Saga’s stunning work. She does a lot of work with hand-drawn illustrations she turns into decals and applies to her pots.

And here’s a little trick she shared with us…
Saga enjoys placing her decals so they are cropped off the edge forcing the user to “visualize” the rest of the image. Not one to “waste” the cropped off portion of the illustration decal… the other half goes on the other side of the cup!!! Brilliant!!!

For more of Saga Johnsson’s work, click here for her website.
Or click here to follow Saga Keramik on Facebook.

One good thing about this morning’s Winter sun…
it totally hit the stained glass in my dining room in just the right way! A great
“art-fair-trade” with stained glass artist Richard Diens of Goodwood Stained Glass Studio.

Tonight was the opening reception for “Sense Of Scale” at Lillstreet Art Center.
Celebrating the work of four inspired metalsmiths – and the beautiful work they make in metal.
Whether it’s sculptural pieces or wearable art, they are all wonderful beauties!

Of course, my favorite metalsmith Sarah Chapman was one of the celebrated artists!
Always making beautiful pieces, it was great to see her work on a larger scale – creating a textured metal constellation piece with beautiful insets of stitched stones & pearls. Additionally, the smaller glass cases had many of her jewelry pieces on display. For more of Sarah Chapman‘s beautiful work, click here for her website.

Sure, the installation grouping is wonderful. But the real beauty is in the details.
Textures. Colors. Architectural designs.

The second metalsmith was Darlys Ewoldt. I’ve seen here around Lillstreet, especially during Summer Camp working with the kids. I must admit that I was unaware of her larger, sculptural works. Her large sculptures were amazing. Great swirling movement and beautiful patina colors. For more of Darlys Ewoldt‘s work, click here for her website.

Sculptural crocheted wire pieces by Heejin Hwang were hanging from the wall & ceiling. Heejin was an Artist In Residence last year at Lillstreet, and is now teaching classes. I love the “hollow” volume of each, and even more, the “shaggy” layers of metal pieces at the top. For more information on Heejin Hwang‘s work, click here for her website.

One of my “crazy” favorites is the sculptural works of Stacey Lee Webber. She was also a Lillstreet Artist-In-Residence a few years back. Everyone was quickly enamored with her quirky style and use of everyday metal objects to create her unique works of art. Coins. Screws. Pennies. In fact… she once constructed a full-size ladder out of copper pennies!!! But I digress… for more of Stacey Lee Webber‘s work, click here for her website.

Like this wonderful bouquet made of screws… whether bundled together…
or flattened out to become the petals of the flowers!

Chain link necklaces made of copper pennies… or gold-plated screws!

Or a large installation piece dripping with chains made of coins… AFTER the faces have been cut out of each coin. YES – ACTUAL REAL COINS!!! So the chain of coins is draped on the left… and the Presidential coin heads on the right!!!

All in all, a wonderful show opening tonight at Lillstreet. It was great to see some of our favorite metalsmiths show off their larger “sculptural” style… along with their smaller jewelry pieces. Be sure to stop by Lillstreet to see this fantastic metal show.

“Sense Of Scale: Metal Sculpture and Wearable Art” through March 2, 2014.

I’ve always loved flip books.
I’ve always been enthralled by pop-up books.
I’ve always been fascinated by paper cut-out shadow books.

So imagine my surprise & excitement when I found these incredible books online today. They’re amazing! So much detail. So much creativity. I would LOVE to see a few of these in person. They’ve got to be AMAZING!!!

As seen at Colossal online…
This fun set of paper books was created by Japanese graphic designer and architect Yusuke Oono who conceived the idea as a clever way to illustrate scenes from individual stories in three dimensions. The 40-panel books are laser cut from paper and assembled into a booklet that can be viewed page by page or fanned out as a sort of layered diorama of silhouettes. You can see dozens of additional views from each book right here.

It might be freezing here in Chicago, but it’s never too soon to start planning
my annual Spring trip to Minnesota for the BIG POTTERY TOUR!!!

So excited… my poster arrived today for the St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour!!!
Fifty-one amazing potters at seven studio locations. All along the beautiful
Upper St. Croix River Valley. Beautiful scenery. Beautiful pots!

If you want to get excited too, click here for their website! www,minnesotapotters.com.
And then mark your calendar for May 9th, 10th & 11th… Mother’s Day Weekend…
and I’ll see you there with shopping bags in hand!

This is kind of amazing…
in an oddly simple, old-school, and yet I’m sure not-so-easy-to-do kind of way!
Pretty impressive. Makes me want to start “spinning” more bowls to see what shows up!!!
Click here for the video!

oops… guess I should have opened my mail sooner today?…
and the most recent addition to my ornament collection that came in the mail today
from one of my Facebook Fans in Massachusetts. She got a mug in my first online sale…
and I just received a beautiful, stamped ornament. Thank you Pam!!!
What a great holiday surprise.

Many of you may have seen my extensive Christmas ornament collection when you came to the “My Home For The Holidays” Home Shows over the years. And then after this year’s Monthly Holiday Ornament Challenge, I now have even more! I’ve always loved handmade ornaments. I guess because I’ve always like to “make things” as a kid. So it’s only fitting that I continue to collect handmade ornaments. And it’s even more fun now that I have so many “Talented Friends” who make so many cool things!

Growing up as a kid, every Christmas we would get a new ornament for our collection from our Grandma Mills (my Mom’s mom). She was quite crafty and worked through the year making ornaments. Many of them are still cherished keepsakes.

And then my Mom took up the tradition and started making us a new handmade ornament every year. As you can see, my Mom works more in the sewing & needlepoint world with tiny little details and a lot of counted-cross-stitch. These have merged nicely into the collection, and grace my tree every season.

Meanwhile, I’ve made a lot of friends who also like to “make things.” So many “Talented Friends” who make cool things… including cool ornaments. And so I continue to expand my Christmas ornament collection. These are just a few from my ornament collection… there are SO many more… far too many to share every one!!!

Cory McCrory                                               Roberta Polfus

Terry Hogan (front?)                                   Terry Hogan (back?)

Cory McCrory                                               Emily Murphy

Roberta Polfus                                             Cory McCrory

Marian Castro-Palanyk                              Zack Medler

Anna Leong                                                  Roberta Polfus

Emily Murphy                                              Lisa Harris

Nancy Jana-Kent                                         Emily Murphy

Terry Hogan (front?)                                  Terry Hogan (back?)

Nancy Jana-Kent                                        Marian Castro-Palanyk

Emily Murphy                                              Amy Higgason

Cory McCrory                                               Rosene Snekhaus… my FIRST art fair friends!

Terry Hogan                                                 Nancy Jana-Kent

Amy Higgason                                             Danny Mansmith

Unknown… but I got it at the “One Of A Kind Show”… and I LOVE IT.
                                                             …and I love grape soda!!! Go figure.

Tonight I stopped in at the Ceramics Showcase in Evanston. So much fun hanging with a few of “My Talented Friends.” Cory McCrory, Roberta Polfus, Delores Fortuna, Amy Higgason & Mary Dye, Glad I got there when I did, as Delores was running really late and I got to “save the day” by helping her unload & get her space set-up! If you’re looking for some nice pottery this weekend, be sure to stop by Evanston and say “hi” to my friends!

Here’s a quick peek at what I came home with from the Evanston Ceramic Showcase…
wonderful goodies from my friends Cory Mccrory & Delores Fortuna.
I love having Talented Friends!!!

A wonderful tufted & textured goblet by Cory McCrory…

A whimsical, dotted mug by Cory McCrory…

A little party blackbird ornament by Cory McCrory…

And a beautiful dinner plate by Delores Fortuna.
It was actually a “thank you gift” from Delores for helping her out this evening. As she said, it was one of the worst days ever for her… lots of problems, conflicts & personal crises… capped off with a flat tire as she was driving in from Galena.

So there she was, arriving in Evanston “after” the show had already started! Luckily I was there – ready & willing to help. Trying to quickly get her shelving & pots into the room so she could get set up. It wasn’t until I was taking a couple extra plank shelves back out to her van that I ran into a little trouble.. err, well ran into a shelf… literally!!! The plank shelf that I was carrying out was apparently longer “taller” than the door frame I was trying to go through. The plank hit the door frame and stopped… unfortunately, I didn’t stop. Wham!!! I walked right into the plank. Ouch. But I was still trying to get Delores all set up, so I didn’t really think too much about it until I felt a little bit of swelling. It wasn’t until I got home and looked in the mirror that I noticed I might be getting a little shiner!!! Yep… took one for the team!!!

But I digress, back to pottery…
My new Delores plate is a great “partner” to this other Delores Fortuna plate
that I’ve loved using for years! Whoo-hoo… now I have TWO!!!

I stopped by the “One Of A Kind Show” last night to help my friend Sarah Chapman.
Her booth is packed full of beautiful pieces for the four-day art fair at the Merchandise Mart.
Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday. Four days of wonderful art.

This is just a sneak preview… be sure to stop by this weekend and see everything for yourself! You’ll be glad you did…