Six months in. Six months to go!!!
And another batch of holiday ornaments made by me & four of My Talented Friends.
Remember, we’ve all signed-on for a Monthly Holiday Ornament Challenge.
The plan is for each of us to make a new ornament each month of the year.
And now we’re half way done! Hard to believe 2016 is already half way over???
When did THAT happen?

My Talented Friend : Cory McCrory
After last month’s fish ornaments, it’s not too surprising that Cory stayed aquatic… err, amphibian… close enough… and went with some adorable frogs for June! And as usual, Cory supplied us with a piece-by-piece, part-by-part photo story. Sorry, no tadpoles to start with, but…

Legs…

Body parts…

Assemble line…

Sightless frogs…

And here they are…. Cory’s adorable amphibians for June!!!
Can’t wait to see them in color after she glazes & fires them!

My Talented Friend : Sarah Chapman
According to Sarah… “The June ornament is covered with snowflakes that were etched into the brass. Very glad that there are no actual snowflakes in sight right now!”

My Talented Friend : Roberta Polfus
Roberta is for the birds! This month she created these beautiful “two turtle doves.” The holes on the top will be filled with a wire ring for hanging.

My Talented Friend : Amy Taylor
For June, Amy went with a longer hanging ornament… complete with dangles, spangles and a faceted black onyx stone.

My Talented Friend : … oh wait, it’s ME again!!!
And for my June ornaments, I went with textured squiggles. These will be destined for my next soda kiln… but I’ve got to add some color to them first. They’ll get a couple layers of different colored flashing slips before they start to dry.

So there they are… June ornaments of My Talented Friends Cory, Sarah, Roberta & Amy. Be sure to check out their websites. They’re all in the LINKS section in the far right column. And they all have fun Facebook pages too. Find your favorites & follow them everywhere!

Save

Save

A quick glimpse at the wedding gift I gave to Camden & Kristin yesterday.
A large stamped platter with a bit of “color irony.” My friend and Camden’s mom’s maiden name is Kelly Green!!! Hope they like it… if not, I’m pretty sure Kelly would be more than willing to take it off their hands!

Save

Save

For those who know me well, you’ll know that today was a double whammy. In a church AND wearing long pants!!! Yikes. Celebrating the marriage of Camden & Kristin… second son of my best friends from college!

Here we go…. our fifth month… May.
And another batch of holiday ornaments made by me & four of My Talented Friends.
Remember, we’ve all signed-on for a Monthly Holiday Ornament Challenge.
The plan is for each of us to make a new ornament each month of the year.
I think it was a little tougher this month for many of us as we were all prepping for the kick-off of the art fair season… but somehow, we all squeezed them in!!!

My Talented Friend : Cory McCrory
Cory went back to her roots a bit… and revisited clay fish! When I first met Cory MANY years ago, we were both at the Hinsdale Arts Festival and she was making fish. I know have a whole school… and a great friend!!! This month Cory also shares a step-by-step photo tour of her ornament production. Starting with a few sketches & maquettes…

And then the fish started taking shape… piece by piece, fin by fin…

Then underglaze colors to really bring them to life!!!

A – DOR – A – BLE – !!! Must have at least a few!!!

And now she’s just showing off… but… Cory went one step even further and glazed & fired her fish for this month’s entry!!! It’s typically tough for we ceramic people to get things made & fired in a timely basis to meet this monthly challenge. But somehow, Cory was an over-achiever this month!!!

My Talented Friend : Sarah Chapman
For May, Sarah went a little twisty with her ornament. Holes, twists, curves, beautiful.
THese would look especially cool on one of those Orna-Motions that rotates ornaments.

My Talented Friend : Roberta Polfus
Roberta went a little organic this month. Adorable little cactii and succulents. Like miniature versions of her already “mini” pods & shapes. So cute. Can’t wait to see these after they’ve been glazed.

My Talented Friend : Amy Taylor
Amy continued with her ornate & stunning metal ornaments for May. A beautiful trio of holiday glamour. Each one with a beautiful, swively hinge on the top.

My Talented Friend : … oh wait, it’s ME again!!!
And for my May ornaments, I went with textured ornaments. Three sides with three different patterns. I got them built in time, but haven;t quite had time to paint them with colored flashing slips. These will be destined for my next soda kiln… but I’ve got add some color to them first.

So there they are… May ornaments of My Talented Friends Cory, Sarah, Roberta & Amy. Be sure to check out their websites. They’re all in the LINKS section in the far right column. And they all have fun Facebook pages too. Find your favorites & follow them everywhere!

Just surprised the Birthday Girl in her booth at the 57th Street Art Fair. Stop by Booth 608 today or tomorrow to wish her well… and she LOVES when you sing loudly!!! Happy Birthday my talented friend Sarah Chapman!!!

Remember the good old days when you liked to pull out the colored pencils and a coloring book?! Well, now you can do it again and support my friend & fellow artist Allison by supporting her Kickstarter campaign. “DAYDREAMERS” is an original coloring book drawn by Allison and her partner in Artillicious! Grab one quick before they’re gone. Relax… Doodle… And support the arts all at the same time!

Click here to go to their Kickstarter campaign page : ARTILLICIOUS

Thanks to everyone who came out to Schaumburg this weekend for the Prairie Arts Festival. The weather turned out so much better than expected. It was beautiful… and such a beautiful venue. Nice trees and a pond with swans!

And I had a wonderful unexpected surprise visit from my Wisconsin biking friend Sue! Such a great weekend!!!

After a fun weekend of hanging out with my friend & master metalsmith Sarah Chapman, I came home with a bunch of roses. I helped Sarah at the Spring One-Of-A-Kind Show in her booth. At the end, it’s the big tear-down and pack-up. Everything packs down pretty tightly. Everything in its place, and every place with it’s thing. The one thing that didn’t fit were her “booth flowers”… which I brought home and have been enjoying for a few days now. Beautiful roses that are still in surprisingly great shape?!!!

Here we go…. our fourth month… April.
And another batch of holiday ornaments made by me & four of My Talented Friends.
Remember, we’ve all signed-on for a Monthly Holiday Ornament Challenge.
The plan is for each of us to make a new ornament each month of the year.
We’re four months in… it’s hard to believe we’re a third of the way through already!!!

My Talented Friend : Cory McCrory
Cory was a bit “sheepish” about turning in this month’s ornament. She didn’t have time to create a whole flock like she wanted to. She was a baaaaa-d girl. I’m in the days to come she’ll be cranking out a few more… as she wouldn’t want to pull the wool over our eyes with just one!

My Talented Friend : Sarah Chapman
For April, Sarah made a patterned metal ribbon ornament out of copper. According to Sarah, “I needed a break from making earrings for One-of-a-Kind this week and decided hammering some metal would do it! I started by roller printing the floral pattern onto a copper sheet. Then I went to work hammering folds into the piece, letting it be as ribbon-y as it wanted to be!”

My Talented Friend : Roberta Polfus
Roberta made a few “Queen Of Hearts” ornaments by carving & poking some porcelain. A beautiful stylized ornament.

My Talented Friend : Amy Taylor
Amy switched back to her metalsmithing ways and offered up a few ornaments very reminiscent of her hinged jewelry line. Sweet little jewels for anyone’s tree!

My Talented Friend : … oh wait, it’s ME again!!!
And for my April ornaments, I returned to a variation of a favorite from two years ago. The stamped star impression becomes more dimensional when the star “puffs up” with a gentle curve on both sides.

I started by cutting out the stars and giving them the gentle curve. I then attached tow of them together… one with the stamp impression for the front, and a plain star for the back.

I then painted the back solid with Nichols Gold Flashing Slip… as well as the front border around the star impression. Once soda-fired, we should see some nice “mustard” gold-ish colorations on the front & back. The star impressions will most likely be inlaid with temoku glaze and then soda fired in my next kiln… in about two weeks! So we should see some results relatively soon!!!

So there they are… April ornaments of My Talented Friends Cory, Sarah, Roberta & Amy. Be sure to check out their websites. They’re all in the LINKS section in the far right column. And they all have fun Facebook pages too. Find your favorites & follow them everywhere!

Spent the day at the Spring One-Of-A-Kind Show with “My Talented Friend” Sarah Chapman. Wonderful metalsmithing and designs… like this beauty made of copper & silver. I’ll be there tomorrow helping her out again. If you want to see some amazing art, and her incredible jewelry, c’mon down to the Merchandise Mart tomorrow!

A better close-up shows better details of Sarah Chapman’s incredible handiwork. Oxidized sterling silver with a roller-printed “embossed” pattern and iolite points protruding from the side. Gorgeous!

Here’s the “other” side of the twosome necklace by Sarah Chapman. This side is roller-print “embossed” copper and “stitched” with beads of iolite, labradorite & chalcedony

For more about Sarah’s amazing metal works, click here for her website.