Spent the afternoon today at the ONE OF A KIND SHOW downtown at the Merchandise Mart… helping My Talented Friend Sarah Chapman in her booth. She makes the most incredible jewelry… each piece completely handmade & one of a kind. Well better again tomorrow until 5:00pm. Be sure to stop by Booth 2118 to say “Hi.”

And take a second to really look at the last necklace with the seashell. I asked Sarah how the real seashell in that pendant got all glittery? And then I hit a full lesson… and it got glittered during the fossilization process!!! Who knew?… and that’s a REAL fossilized seashell. Totally cool.

Can’t make it tomorrow?… you can always check her website at www.chapmanmetals.com

Coming soon… another HOLIDAY HOME SHOW for those who need to do a little last-minute holiday shopping! I’m restocking the pottery shelves & prepping for another go-round. And this time I will also have a jeweler friend of mine joining me. Rhonda Gurgone makes her jewelry out of antique buttons from around the world. And she knows the history of every button… most of them over a hundred years old!!! So mark your calendars… and start making your holiday gift shopping lists!

After my tour of MKM POTTERY TOOLS… Rick invited me over to his pottery studio… Fired Earth Pottery. It’s a very nice group studio space for resident artists, as well as classes & renters. Lucky for me, ceramic artist AL Holden was going to be doing a workshop at Fired Earth Pottery last night… and Rick invited me to stay… so I did! It was great to meet AL and see her work. I just love watching people throw on the wheel regardless of their skill level… so it was even more fun to see someone at the college professor level “showing-off” and making cool pots! The evening was great with AL doing the show, but all of the participants were great fun too!!! Glad I went to Appleton yesterday…. turns out there was a lot to do!!!

And of course… there were PLENTY of MKM Pottery Tools on hand for AL to use!!!

Check her out… www.alholenceramics.com

One of the best things about having talented friends… is the ever-popular art fair trades! They don’t always work out… but this time it sure did!! As I traded some pottery with my friend Cheryl Holz for this sweet little multi-media collage piece. That’s gonna look great on my celery-green dining room wall! Thanks Cheryl!!!

The sun was hitting it just right!!! Sun shining, glass glowing, colors popping!!! This beautiful stained glass piece with an Amberina Depression Glass butter dish lid is now a new resident in my condo! After a successful ART IN THE GARDEN … I splurged on this beauty made by friend Retta. You should get one too… so follow her on Facebook … I Do Windows by Rettaglass

Speaking of collaborations… here’s another one at ART IN THE GARDEN. My friend Retta Hentschel made this amazing stained glass window using some of my textured clay nuggets! Such a nice piece… so happy to be part of it! Retta did an amazing job here… combining her glass & my clay into one stunning window pane!

Never fear, Cory did an amazing job pulling together a fine “Plan B” after her kiln challenges this week. We may have lost a few bugs along the way… a few we’re resurrected… and she might have added in a couple retro TVs with bugs. I put them all together with my tiles last night… and we still ended up with ten amazing collaboration pieces for this weekend’s ART IN THE GARDEN show. … whew! There’s only ten of these collabs… and they might go fast?!!!

Now don’t get too excited… this “LOST” retro television is MINE!!!
A special custom piece just for me & my addiction to the best TV show ever!
I just love having talented friends!

Looks like my pal Kristin Conneely is pulling together some last-minute mosaic collaborations for ART IN THE GARDEN this weekend! And this one is a three-way… my orange nuggets, Cory’s leaves & Kristin will be mosaic-ing all around them!!! You’ll need to stop by this weekend to see the finished collaboration pieces!!!

This weekend is the NORTHERN ILLINOIS POTTERY TOUR. A great chance for a fun roadtrip to see 40 potters at six different studio locations. I will be at Stop #5 in Sandwich… along with rest of these great potters!!! Special thanks to my pal Cory McCrory for hosting all of us at her place!!!

Fresh from the ST. CROIX VALLEY POTTERY TOUR… this beautiful mishima porcelain bowl by Steven Young Lee that came home with me. Not only is it a stunning bowl with crazy-cool colors streaming out of that hand-carved criss-cross pattern… but it was also made by my own favorite pottery teacher!

Yes… Steve Lee was one of my early pottery teachers back at the old Lillstreet location. It was a more advanced wheelthrowing class… and Steve was very clear with his expectations right from the start. A great teacher… with great pots… and always good to see him again on the Minnesota Pottery Tour.