Just in case you haven’t heard the rumor by now… this weekend is my HOLIDAY HOME SHOW!!! With pottery in every room of my condo all decorated for Christmas… wit festive food & drink in the kitchen. Plus, the “Tired Of Shlepping Sale” is on the back porch with tons of discounted & clearance priced pottery. It’s the perfect chance to start your holiday shopping! So make your list… check it twice… then stop by this weekend Saturday & Sunday from 10:00am-6:00pm!

And bring a friend… or five!!!

Doing a little glaze inlay into the stamped impressions. I like to fill the stampings with a dark tenmoku glaze so the pattern stands out a bit more after the soda-firing!

Is it still a lidded jar if it doesn’t have a lid on???

Just a quick question as I’m busy painting on some details & accents of colored flashing slips on my newest batch of smaller lidded jars!

For the record, it does have a lid… it’s just not on the jar while I’m painting them!

Here’s the latest batch of lidded jars on my wedging table. Kinda cute with their little finial knobs… actually wheelthrown onto the lid after trimming it dome-smooth!

Last week at Summer Camp I had a group of teenagers. All of them had wheelthrown at last once before… so I knew it was going to be a fun week. They re-learned & practiced throwing on Monday & Tuesday, trimmed & decorated on Wednesday. But it was Thursday when I challenged them to making lidded jars! Yep, full-on lidded jars… complete with caliper-measured lids AND throwing off-the-hump. And they totally rocked it out!!!

With a long weekend & great weather ahead of us, it looks like the “perfect” weekend to kick-off my summer art fair season! This Saturday & Sunday from 10:00am-5:00pm in Schaumburg… same booth space as always! Hope you can swing by!!!

Boy, these class demo pieces sure seem to dry out fast?!…
even though it was under plastic, this lidded jar demo piece was surprisingly dry when I checked on it. Too dry to stamp!!! So I resorted once again to carving some patterns on the lid with my DiamondCore Tools. Sure they work best on leatherhard clay, but still work great on drier clay too!

This weekend is the GLENVIEW SUMMER ART FAIR… in a new location at Attea Middle School. It’s a nice art fair with lots of local artists, each very talented in their own media. Hope you have time to stop by to chat, see some art & to support local artists.

Attea Middle School
2500 Chestnut Avenue, Glenview from 11:00am-5:00pm.

There will also be another art fair going on at The Glen…
however it’s a large “conglomerate” art fair of artists brought in from all over the country. A “stable” of artists that travel in a group kinda like Corporate America doing an art fair. I’m sure their work is beautiful too… but if you need to make a choice, please SUPPORT LOCAL ARTISTS.

Last night in class, we finished off Part Two of last week’s lidded jars demo. Tackling the knobs on the lids… with two knobs created while trimming (closest to the jars) and the other two with cute little finials wheelthrown onto the lids from an attached nugget of clay. Always good to have options!

A few more pieces that came out of my recent soda kiln. These lidded jars & more will be available during my HOLIDAY HOME SHOW this coming weekend! I’ve been making a lot of work getting ready for this big annual event! My favorite pottery sale of the year!