We’re just one month away from “4×4 : FOUR MAKERS”… and I’ve really got to get my act together in the studio!!! It’s a great pop-up show with some of My Talented Friends… Sarah Chapman, Darlys Ewoldt & Robin Kittleson… giving us a talented metalsmith, sculptor & glass artist in that order!!! Mark your calendars now for the first weekend in March… with more details & photos to come!!!

I’ve always said how much I LOVE having talented friends! Like metalsmith Sarah Chapman who made all of these beauties… which you can come see tomorrow in person at the ONE OF A KIND SHOW at the Merchandise Mart downtown. I’ll be there helping her again tomorrow in Booth 2118 until 5:00pm. Be sure to stop by… her work is AMAZING!

So last night my longtime friend & pottery student Kristen had a little “First Dibs” party before launching her pottery website today! As a former metalsmith, it’s been fun watching her work in clay instead of metal. And seeing her skills & designs grow & evolve so quickly. You can tell she’s been listening to my lessons… especially my “More Is More” mantra! Congrats Kristen… so proud of you!!!

I came home with this little brown cup. Which was actually a class demo… that I offered for someone else to finish. Kristen was the first to claim it… and look what she did to my “plain” demo cylinder!!!

I love having talented friends… and trading art with those “Talented Friends”!!! During ART IN THE BARN last weekend, I struck a great trade with Sandy James! She makes wonderful pieces “Of Nature” by electroforming copper on actual leaves, branches, seed pods, etc. Such an amazing way to capture nature & preserve it forever. I was lucky enough to grab this one… so enamored by the “skeleton” of the decaying leaf being captured in copper… forever!

And who knows… there has even been some discussion of some future collaborations down the road… you know how I LOVE a good collaboration project!!!

For more about Sandy’s beautiful pieces “Of Nature”… click here… https://ofnature.com/

And huge congratulations to my friend Cheryl Holz who won “Best Of Show” at this weekend’s ART IN THE BARN!!! I’ve always loved Cheryl and her amazing multi-media artwork… but this time she really blew it out of the water with this new piece using an old letterpress type drawer! Such an amazing piece… such an amazing talent. You’re the best Cheryl!! Well deserved.

Stopped by Kristin Conneely’s mosaic studio the other day. I just love seeing where artists make their magic happen! Of course she’s got a beautiful assortment of colors, tiles & shards… including some amazing glass shards from our glass-fusing friend Robin Kittleson. So fun to see them sharing supplies… as we introduced them to each other during this spring’s “4×4 : Four Makers Show.” Robin has a ton of leftover shards & scraps from her amazing fused glass pieces… and it just works out perfect that Kristin uses “shards & scraps” in her mosaic masterpieces! Come see Kristin’s incredible mosaics at ART IN THE GARDEN on September 9th & 10th in Glenview!

So hard to believe that we’re now just two weeks from ART IN THE GARDEN!!! One of my favorite art fairs of the summer… a great grassroots effort by a bunch of talented friends! We have a LOT of collaborations currently under way with several of the artists mixing it up & creating cool one-of-a-kind pieces together! So mark your calendars & hopefully we’ll see you in two weeks!!!

For more information, click here – www.grassrootsartfair.com

Porcelain platters & shallow bowls…
all with wide flanges & rims which will make for perfect canvases for Amy Taylor to play with!

Hard to believe that we’re just three weeks away from ART IN THE GARDEN in Glenview. One of my favorite art fairs of the summer… a fun grassroots event with a group of My Talented Friends! One of the best parts about this art fair is that several of us work on one-of-a-kind collaboration pieces just for this show! I’ve got a few in the works already… now I’ve got to get them all done in time!!! So mark your calendar now… Saturday, September 9th & Sunday, September 10th.

For more information, click here… https://www.grassrootsartfair.com/

Okay… picture this! This is the amazing fused glass work by Robin Kittleson. Every polka dot is an individual cane of hand-pulled millefiori glass cut into small nuggets that are like a 1/4″ long. Some of the canes of glass have several layers of colors within them. Then they’re all stacked tightly together sidce-by-side, packing together different colors & making patterns. So many individual pieces of different diameters packed so tight that there are no gaps or spaces. There is no filler – just canes of glass. Once all filled & packed together, it is all slowly melted together in a kiln… and slumped over a mold to create the smooth platter shapes. Incredible process & beautiful results… and if you hold them up to the light so it shines through… BREATHTAKING!!!