One month from today I’ll be playing in Minnesota…
Surrounded by some of the best pottery by some of the country’s best potters at the
21st Annual St. Croix River Valley Pottery Tour. It’s the perfect place to meet the artists, visit with old friends, make some new ones, get inspired by cool pots everywhere… and most likely make a few purchases along the way!

With fifty potters all converging in the St. Croix area, there is sure to be some pottery that strikes your fancy. So many of the potters whose work you see in the galleries, as well as in all of the clay magazines like Ceramics Monthly. This is your chance to meet the artists, covet their work, and quite possibly take something beautiful home with you… including the wonderful clay memories. There are seven studio locations to stop off at. Each of the resident artists invite other potters to their location, setting up tents and displays all over to showcase the pots. It’s always a fun weekend to drive from studio to studio, see their working studios and enjoy the beautiful scenery along the St. Croix River. It’s always Mother’s Day Weekend… so bring along Mom for a fun weekend. I know I will be!!!

Our tour every starts out every year at the studio of Bob Briscoe. His location is incredible as it is surrounded by woods, and overlooks a quaint little pond. In his front yard are several large white wedding tents all filled with pots!!! Bob’s also done a great job of gathering some incredible potters to share his location… including two of my favorites Matt Metz & Suze Lindsay. Over the years, I’ve gathered quite a collection of these three.

We spend a lot of time (and money) at Bob’s location before we head out on the Tour to the other locations… and to see some of your other favorite potters like Steven Hill, Delores Fortuna & Silvie Granatelli. I’ve known Steven & Delores for several years. It’s always great to “play with them” while we’re on the Tour.

Plus this year, there are a few new names on the tour I’m looking forward to seeing like Ernest Miller, Dan Finnegan & Sarah Jaeger. I’m especially intrigued by the crystalline glazes that Ernest Miller uses to create such incredible surfaces on his pots.

Sadly, I’m not one of the “chosen” potters who show at the St. Croix Pottery Tour. I’m not quite in their league. Yet. I’m not “famous” in the pottery world. Yet. But it’s always good to dream right?… and shop in meantime!

My favorite metalsmith Sarah Chapman is going to be back in town this Saturday!
Sure, she might have moved away to Minneapolis, but she’s still making great jewelry… and a new holiday ornament every month! This Saturday 4/13 is her Trunk Show in the Gallery of Lillstreet Art Center on the corner of Montrose & Ravenswood in Chicago. Stop by Saturday between 10:00am-12:00pm to see Sarah and her incredible textured, patina’d & constructed metal pieces! I guarantee you’re going to want your own piece of “Chapman Wear”… or add to your already growing growing collection!

As seen on Colossal.com…
Exploded Flowers is a series of photos by artist Fong Qi Wei that shows a variety of flowers dissected into individual components. Reminiscent of exploding fireworks, it’s fascinating to see the radial footprints each flower makes relative to the size of its actual bloom. The series placed second in the 2012 International Photography Awards. You can see more from the series on Wei’s website.

I found this really cool video online. It’s basically a feather balancing act… and a lot more! His name is Madir Eugster and he’s apparently known for balancing a lot of crazy things. This time it’s a feather… and that’s a lot of contraption to lift one feather!!!

Just balancing one feather wouldn’t be so impressive. But add a few more pieces…
and then it’s kind of like and Alexander Calder mobile. Be sure to watch to the end when he removes the feather!

Click here to see the video of Madir Eugster and his amazing balancing feat.

Click here to see the same trick done by his daughter Laura Jacobs Rigolo.
Who I believe is now performing this act in Cirque du Soleil’s new show “Amaluna.”

We’re getting down to the last few days of March…
and you know that the plan for metalsmith Sarah Chapman & me is to create a new holiday ornament each month this year! And here they are for March… just under the wire.

Sarah as been working feverishly to get her ornaments done in time! She’s bee busy in her studio making other pieces, including a special commission piece for a commercial photo shoot! Yeah Sarah! So I was excited when she finally showed me her finished feather ornaments!… complete with textures & patinas. Two of my favorites!

From Sarah: “The theme for March’s ornament is a feather. These are copper with embossed and roller printed textures, hanging from loopy brass wires. I’ve been a little obsessed (researching, drawing, standing in front of people’s houses trying to figure out what kind of bird is making that sound) with birds for a while now and these are among the first pieces to emerge in this theme. I had to keep myself from referring to a particular bird’s feather and just go with featheriness.”

When I started my ornaments for March, I decided to go with a snowflake theme. So I build myself a couple snowflake stamps that I could use. Once they were bisqued, they were ready for pressing into the clay. I cut them out, puffed them up a bit and made them into ornaments.

Once I had several of them done in stoneware, I realized that maybe I should have done them in porcelain?! So I made another batch. I think it will be fun to have both versions to play with for different finishing effects.

Once they’re all bisqued, I will need to decide how I’m going to finish them. At first I was thinking of glazing them in clears, whites and blues. But now I’m considering rubbing some underglazes into the textures first… maybe leaving them unglazed?! Or underglazed to accent the textures, and then clear glazed over? Luckily, I have a lot of them now to play with!!!

Last night I hung out with some friends at Lillstreet Art Center before making it upstairs to my studio. Such a fun distraction to have the classrooms downstairs with a lot of great fun & art going on down there. Last night my friend Terry Hogan was once again working on her incredibly intricate pierced porcelain creations. Up until recently, they’ve been on the smaller size. But lately she’s been expanding (literally) and going for some larger, sculptural pieces. Still with that crazy perfection & attention-to-detail.

And how does she do it one might ask? Well, with a crazy amount of creativity & patience!!! But also a pretty cool pile of tools for poking, piercing, pricking and pointilism-ing!

So I just donated to Fine Mess Pottery to help in her quest to reformulate her glazes
for cone 6 soda firing. A great project with hopes of making a safer, greener & cheaper firing alternative. I love that she’s doing the work, and more than willing to share her results on her blog. So we all benefit… especially when her glaze tests work out. And as an added bonus, for my $30 donation, I’m going to receive a bound notebook of all her glaze & slip recipes!!! If you’re looking to donate a different amount, there are several other “thank you gift” levels… from thank you notes, to teabowls, to mugs, to casseroles… or even a cake stand with a cheesecake!!!

Thanks to Emily Murphy Bicking for sharing this glaze-fundraising project!
If you’d like to support her Lori Watts and her glaze reformulation project, click here.
If you want to learn more about Lori and Fine Mess Pottery, click here.

I don’t know much about this… except that I love it. And I want one.
Okay, not just one… but a whole wall. I saw it on Facebook and knew that I had to share.

According to artist Ned Kahn’s website…
A 25-foot tall by 110-foot long, wind-activated artwork that consists of 3960, 9”x 9” squares of aluminum chain maille. These hanging panels of metallic fabric are extremely lightweight and responsive to subtle changes in the wind. The kinetic facade extends inside the building and covers a floor to ceiling wall inside the lobby where it is animated by the ventilation system of the building. The artwork installation was designed in collaboration with Davis Davis Architects in San Diego.

If you want to see the video, and trust me, you do… click on Ned Kahn “Chain Of Ether.”

When faced with a roof full of empty bowls at Lillstreet’s “Empty Bowls Project”…
how do you choose? It’s especially tough when there are already far too many bowls
in my life. Most of them my own. Do I really need another one?! And the answer is
“of course I do.” Especially when you see one that catches your eye… and it’s made
by a friend! So here’s my new empty bowl…

I was pretty sure that it was made by Jay Strommen… remember?… the guy I posted
about a week ago? The one with the really cool wall pieces at the Bridgeport Art Center?!
If you missed that blog post, click here.

All of the clues pointed towards Jay and his partner Gina. The clay looks like Jay’s…
dark brown, gritty, chunky, with a ton of particles in it. The tea bowl shape looks very
Jay-like as well. The stamped “chop” signature looked familiar, but I wasn’t sure.

The clincher was the word LUNAR painted on the bottom in white slip. I remembered
that Gina’s company is “Lunar Media.” it all seemed too coincidental. But I went with
my gut picked this one… knowing that it just had to be from Jay & Gina.

And it was. I contacted Gina and she confirmed that it is indeed a Jay Strommen
original. Jay actually referred to it as one of their “lunar lovelies.” And I agree.
I liked it because it was beautiful… I love it even more now that I know
a friend made it!!!

My friend Kristen brought her son AJ to Lillstreet today for a kid’s birthday party.
Kristen and I went for ice cream, hot fudge & more hot fudge while he played at his
party. Afterwards, AJ came up to my studio and made a few holiday star ornaments
of his own! So adorable. So much fun to have a little studio “apprentice” today!

Rolling the clay… pressing in textures… and cutting out stars. Instant ornaments!!!