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!

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A sweet collection of soda-fired bottles…
that have landed on my fireplace mantle as part of my own personal collection!!!

It’s always so much fun to find out that someone out there is actually reading my blog, watching my videos and trying some of my ideas in their own work. I love sharing and story-telling… Good to know that someone is “listening.”

So I got this great e-mail from a “Fan” who is currently living in Japan.
Apparently, they don’t do much stamping in Japan?!

From an e-mail from David in Japan…
“Gary, I have to thank you for your blog and YouTube videos: they’ve been a brilliant inspiration for me here in Japan. Just by copying a few of the things you have done. I’m trying things here that nobody else, even my teachers, have done before. It’s a lot of fun. I’ve just started, but I think I’ll be stamping for quite a while from now. Thanks again!”

Here’s a quick glimpse of a fun platter a made as a class demo. I placed a lace doily onto the freshly-thrown plate surface and carefully covered it with thick white slip. Pull off the lace.. and voila’! Sure, it’s taken me awhile to get it glazed, but I think it was worth the wait.

I had a great “surprise” visit from a budding potter from Nova Scotia yesterday. She follows along on Facebook and found herself in Chicago for a conference. So she stopped by and luckily I was around to meet her, chat and give her a quick tour. So much fun to meet some of my Facebook friends in person! Plus, she now has two nice mugs going home with her to Canada!

As part of the last pottery class, I like to challenge my students to a pottery exchange. So this session everyone had to bring in a mug they had made in class. We then did a fun trading-stealing White Elephant sort of game… and everyone left with another person’s mug. I came home with a twosome of tumblers by Megan… complete with some crocheted little cozies!!!

Good luck Megan as you move on to Colorado…
and continue your pottery adventure in the Rockies!

With just a few days until the kick-off of my Summer Art Fair schedule, it’s time to start pricing & packing all of my new pots. I’ve fired four kilns in the past couple weeks – so there are a LOT of new pots!!! Well over a hundred new mugs!!!

Luckily, my parents came over today help with the slightly overwhelming project. Our goal for the day is to get everything prepped & priced, and then divided and separated into two separate piles. Each pile is designated for a different art fair. Kind of nice to have enough pots packed and ready to go for BOTH my Schaumburg and Hinsdale shows!

Nice to have this huge project done. And ready to go for both shows with a new & separate inventory for each. Even better, we also packed the van for Schaumburg… so tomorrow can be a “rest day” for all of us before we head out to Schaumburg for the weekend show.

Last night in class it was great to see so many of my students cranking out the work. Megan had plates & cups everywhere, Natalie was slip decorating a full set of mugs with her “Starry Night” design, and everyone else was up to their elbows in clay! Hard to believe we’re already at Week Nine of classes… so proud to see how far they’ve come.

The front door bricks were just taken off… and all looks good!.
Always a relief to see some good colors and nice soda flashing effects.
And to know that as you dig in and unpack the kiln it’s only going to get better!

It was also nice to see the top cone pack still intact. At some point towards the end of the firing, I lost visuals on it. The kiln was so hot, glowing orange with flames shooting out… that ot was tough to see in through the peep. I actually wondered if it had fallen off the shelf at some point?! Apparently not… but that Cone 10 did melt nice and flat, huh?!

Always fun to unpack and see what’s in-store. So many nice things that were “kissed” by the kiln flames. Beautiful blushes of colors and soda build-up. So many of these pieces will be coming with me to Schaumburg & Hinsdale for my first two art fairs. We’re just weeks away… and here’s a sneak peek of what to expect…

One of the many joys of soda firing. Some times the Kiln Gods like to give some pots a good sloppy kiss of goo. Changing their destiny forever. Luckily, this was my only “kissed” pot.

Now THAT’s a big smooch!!!

Click over to my INSTAGRAM feed to see a video of what happened to this “lovely” pot!
www.instagram.com/firewhenreadypottery – and then hit FOLLOW.

Or, even quicker, click on the QR Code…

One of my Advanced Beginner students has been perfecting her ombre slip painted dinnerware set. She’s been working on bowls, mugs, cups and more. This week she started tackling her “starry, starry night” plates. And I’m LOVING it!!! Way to go Natalie!!!

And now she’s