Now that we’re into December and thinking about holiday gift giving, it’s time to mark your calendar for next Saturday. It’s another Holiday Home Show with my friend & guest artist Amy Taylor joining me for the day. Looks like it’s pottery and jewelry for everyone on your holiday gift list!

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Hard to believe we’re just over a month away from Christmas!!!
How did THAT happen??? So now it doesn’t feel so weird making ornaments, huh?

So here’s 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.

My Talented Friend : Cory McCrory
Cory has knocked it out of the park again this month!!! How cute are these little Elf Shoes?!!! Friggin’ adorable… that’s how cute! And you can bet they’re going to be even cooler after they are painted & glazed!

My Talented Friend : Sarah Chapman
Sarah’s gone with a twist this month! A lovely pierced spiral ornament in shiny brass.

My Talented Friend : Roberta Polfus
Roberta has stuck to her roots this month by making these flowering pod shapes that she’s known for. This time they’re a bit smaller than normal to make wonderful carved ornaments.

My Talented Friend : Amy Taylor
After a rough month in September, Amy returned to The Challenge with a vengeance. Simple, yet elegant. Beautiful sterling rings that will shimmer and shine on any holiday tree.

My Talented Friend : … oh wait, it’s ME again!!!
My October ornament is pretty simple this month. I’ve been SO busy getting everything ready for my latest soda kiln. Not to mention raining & doing my first IRONMAN. Regardless… I made a lot of these textured heart ornaments to add to my “bargain box” of ornaments. They’re all textured, slip painted and ready for the soda kiln to work its magic!

So there they are… October ornaments from My Talented Friends Cory, Sarah, Roberta & Amy. Be sure to check out everyone’s 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!

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Another apology for being delayed in posting again this month.
Life has just been slipping by… and some of us had an IRONMAN to tackle!!!
So now that that’s over… yay me!!!… it’s back to the studio. Back to ornaments!!!

Here’s 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.

My Talented Friend : Cory McCrory
Cory made adorable little mittens! So cute with their little thumbs. Their little textures. Can’t wait to see the pairs of mittens colored & glazed in time for the holidays!

My Talented Friend : Sarah Chapman
Sarah’s has embraced Fall moving into the Minneapolis area. Her September ornament is a copper leaf… complete with veins & textures. When set amongst actual Fall leaves, they’re kind of hard to discern from the real things?!!! Nicely done Sarah!!!

My Talented Friend : Roberta Polfus
Roberta made these wonderful textured & carved porcelain pod-horns for September. I love the subtle textures and how the light & shadows play on them.

My Talented Friend : Amy Taylor
Uh oh… Amy had a rough go of it this month. Too many art fairs, commissions and other commitments keeping her too busy to make ornaments this month. So we’ll give her a “one-time pass”… and really expect great things, and great ornaments, for her October entry!!!

My Talented Friend : … oh wait, it’s ME again!!!
My September ornaments are cute little Christmas presents with textured “gift wrap” and a fun little bow. I painted colored slip on the box so that there is some color contrast with the bow. The “presents” are destined for my next soda kiln – and I can’t wait to see how the flames created some wonderful flashings on my September ornaments.

So there they are… September ornaments from My Talented Friends Cory, Sarah, Roberta & whoops… NOT Amy this month?! Hopefully everyone’s schedule will settle down a bit and we can get everyone back on track with their October ornaments?!!!

Be sure to check out everyone’s 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!

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Huge congratulations to my friend & incredible painter Cheryl Holz
who won the top honor last weekend at ART IN THE BARN!!!

From Cheryl’s website…
Cheryl Holz is a midwestern artist whose mixed media artwork celebrates nature’s strength, beauty and diversity. Like sediment accumulates in a riverbed, she builds up layers of textured surfaces, organic painting processes, and relevant text on wooden panels. Portions are excavated to reveal botanical or geological specimens and natural patterns.

I met Cheryl a few years back and have admired her work ever since. Her imagery, her layers, patterns and combinations. The multi-media mixtures of nature & text. The color palette that is so close to my own personal palette… see my condo, see her colors… one and the same!!! And she’s one of the nicest people to boot. I’ve always said that I’m so happy to have so many Talented Friends!!!

Congrats again to my friend Cheryl… she deserves all the ribbon, prizes and accolades.
BEST OF SHOW 2016.

For more of Cheryl’s work, click here for her website… or in the Links column to the right.

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Came home from ART IN THE BARN with this beautiful porcelain tile from My Talented Friend Mike Skiersch. He hand carves the master tile and then makes a mold to produce these tiles. The glaze is one of studio recipes that looks incredible on his tiles. I love the color & the pooling. The crackling looks great on his tiles… not quite so good on my functional work.

To see more of Mike’s tile work, click here for his website.

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So what do you get when a group of artistic friends get together in a garden?!
You get a wonderful grassroots affair… ART IN THE GARDEN.

For the third year, we had a wonderful time in the backyard garden of my friend & metalsmith Amy Taylor. Seven talented friends all banded together to throw a little art soiree’. A more intimate art fair where you really get a chance to visit and chat with the artists. The weekend started out with a little bit of misty rain on Saturday… but by noon it had cleared up and the rest of the weekend was PERFECT!!!

We had a wonderful time. Thanks to everyone who stopped by The Garden. We loved seeing everyone. Taking time to chat with everyone. And making some new friends & customers. It was a merry band of artists hanging out and playing together for the weekend. Thanks to Amy, and her husband Tom, for inviting us and hosting everyone in her backyard. And not only did she host everyone.. she also created some wonderful award ribbons fro everyone… ‘cuz everyone was a winner!

So in case you missed it… here’s a quick recap of some of the artists and their works!!!

Cory McCrory : Whimsical ceramic pieces made with paper clay. Cory has a wonderful sense of humor, an upbeat color palette and a wonderful appreciation for textures & patterns.

Deb Anderson : Beautiful impressionist paintings of nature, flowers, trees and more. Wonderful images that look so realistic from a distance, but then “break-up” into individual brish strokes when you get closer. Just wonderful.

Jill Wallace : Spunky colors… so close to tie-dye that you know I just loved them!!! She actually does a special ice-dyeing technique to create these special colors & patterns on her silk scarves & wraps.

Martin Chadwick : Incredible surrealistic montage paintings that feature a LOT of imagery information to tell a story. Intricate details and spot-on visual references. Not only are his paintings incredible… his sculptural ceramic work is pretty impressive as well.

Donna Sauers : Beautiful handmade glass bead jewelry with sterling silver accents & chains.  Baubles & bangles with collections of beads.

Retta Hentschel : Stained glass windows, lamps and lawn ornaments with collections of vintage glass interspersed with traditional glass. The textures & faceting of the vintage glass make for very special windows.

And our “garden” host Amy Taylor : Whose work speaks for itself! Wonderful designs and impeccable craftsmanship… each with a nifty hinge. Yep, everything swivels, bends, closes ot somehow pivots on a hinge!!! A lot of semi-precious stones, gems, glass and other inclusions make Amy’s work quite special. I already have quite the collection of Amy’s amazing pieces!

Also, the collaboration pieces that Amy and I did together had their “Big Reveal”!!! These innovative necklaces incorporate textured ceramic disks that I made. And then the sterling silver “cafe” pendants that Amy made to hold them. They have a great hinge & clasp combinatin so you can open & close the pendant to trade out the discs. Each necklace comes with a collection of discs in different colors & textures.

And who’s coming home with the round one in the center… little old ME!!!

I also received my ribbon award form Amy… not surprising it had OREO’s, huh?!!!

And a special award for Amy’s husband Tom… who got the garden all ready for our invasion. Tom was always there to help each of us in the garden. Setting up, tearing down, figuring out where everything goes and so much more!

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Huge congratulations to one of my favorite teachers ever!!! Steven Young Lee and his new gallery show at the Renwick Gallery in Washington DC. Amazing pots. Fantastic artist. Incredible teacher. Thank you Steven for sharing your art, knowledge & passion with the rest of us!

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Looks like something special in the works?! This is the kind of “magic” that happens when artist friends get together and collaborate. Come to ART IN THE GARDEN this weekend to see the final results. Amy Taylor is amazing!!! And let me just add two more enticing tidbits… “Limited Edition” and even better… “interchangeable.”

So we started with some textured clay “cabachons” or disc inserts.

Then Amy made some great metal “cases” to hold the discs. Practically everything Amy makes has a hinge on it somewhere, so it was no surprise that these do too!!!

A little cleaning up… and then polishing…

Insert the ceramic disk… and voila’… PERFECTION!!!
She’s amazing… and this one may just have to be mibe?!

And again… interchangeable ceramic disks in the hinged sterling case…
but VERY Limited Quantities this weekend only at ART IN THE GARDEN!!!

We’re all frantically getting ready for ART IN THE GARDEN this weekend. And it looks like my friend Cory McCrory might be bringing some hot pots fresh out of the kiln!!! Click on the Link for more information about ART IN THE GARDEN in Glenview. Two days of art & fun this weekend!

Looks like my friend & wonderful painter, sculptor (and former student) Martin Chadwick has been busy getting ready for next weekend… in addition to moving to Colorado!!! Busy guy. Just a quick glimpse of some of Martin’s artworks that will be at ART IN THE GARDEN. September 10th & 11th at 1205 Hutchings Avenue, Glenview, Illinois 60025. Be sure to stop by and wish Martin & wife Christi a grand Bon Voyage!!!