Now I don’t mean to gloat… and I’m sure I’m not the first…
but I’m all packed up and ready for this weekend’s art fair in Schaumburg!
Yes, two days ahead of schedule. Unheard of.

Typically, I’d be scrambling all over the place on Friday trying to do everything.
Trying to remember where I left things at the end of last season. Where’s my tent?
How many shelves do I need to take? How much is this? Where is that? Help…
Many potters have been known to be unloading a hot kiln on Friday night
still needing to cool, price & pack on just the night before the show!!! Yikes!

But instead, my parents and I tackled the storage room today and got it all together.
We’re all packed up for this weekend’s art fair in Schaumburg! Done. Packed.
In the van ready to go… and it’s only Wednesday!!! Unheard of.
Again, I’m not gloating… but I’m just sayin’..

Sure, I still have a few last minute projects to complete. A few supplies to gather.
Snack. Flowers. Signs. But it does feel great to be ready… I’ll sleep well tonight.

Well, that depends on what you consider fun?
If you like a lot of pots, lots of pricing, packing, schlepping, piling, sorting, cleaning…
more pricing… more packing… well, then the “fun” begins this morning! Yippee!!!

It’s time to make sense out of the mess I’ve made in my storage room.
A lot of pots have come out of the kiln, just to be boxed up and piled up in my
storage room. Waiting for today to come… the day of pricing & packing!
Luckily, my best art fair assistants are coming over to help… thanks Mom & Dad.
By the end of the day (and evening?) we’re going to try and have TWO art fair’s
worth of pots priced, packed and ready to go! With two shows so close together,
I think it’s best to divide & conquer – two different sets of inventory ready to go!

Schaumburg Prairie Arts Festival – May 28th & 29th– this weekend!
and then just two weeks later…
Hinsdale Fine Arts Festival – June 11th & 12th

It’s amazing what a difference a little underglaze was can make!
Painted on all over, then the top surfaces are gently wiped off.
All of the textures & patterns pop-out and become even more dramatic!

One more firing, this time cone 10…. and these little treasures should be ready
just in time for the Hinsdale Fine Art Festival. Now just a couple weeks away…

So this little piece of plastic arrived in the mail today.
And from what everyone is saying, it’s going to solve all of my credit card
transaction dilemmas. No more knuckle-buster?… can that be true?!
Just plug it in my iPhone and voila’… instant credit card processing!

So I think I’m ready for this. It seems just a little too easy.
I’ll need to give it a little “test run” before the Schaumburg Prairie Arts Festival
next weekend! And then hope for good weather… and good reception!

With just two weeks until the Schaumburg Prairie Fine Arts Festival…
it’s time to step up my efforts in the “shameless self-promotion” department.
Hey, if you don’t promote yourself, who will?

My mantra for today has been… “postcard, address label, stamp, repeat.”
Going well – but I still have a couple hundred to go!

So Tuesday night’s class was supposed to be “throwing taller”… everyone’s nemesis.
But with the Bulls game… and the Cubs game… and the beautiful evening weather,
attendance was a little low – understandably! So we decided to put off that demo
until next week. And instead, we went with one of my favorites – “Demo On Demand.”
Basically it’s an open night for students to get whatever demo they need… whatever
they missed, whatever they didn’t quite get, whatever they want to see again. So we did
a few different demos… and ended with another demo on how to make ovals for those
who had missed that demo. Plus, we went one step further… and decided that an “oval”
doesn’t always mean that it needs to be a “plain” oval. And after a little post-class-finishing,
this oval pot is now ready to start drying.

And here’s a new favorite… a simple split rim with tight pinches back together
to give it this sort of “quilted” quality! But not on the “side points” sticking out.
I decided to go with the contrast to help define those areas. And then we’ll need to
come up with a similar glazing solution to help accentuate that design choice as well.

So last night was Week Six in our Beginning & Advanced Beginning Wheel class.
Let me just say… MY class is a little more advanced than the other beginning classes.
I have a tendency to push my beginners a little more than most. But it’s exciting to see
how they’ve all progressed and are now tackling more advanced pieces. So exciting.

Last night we tackled some more surface decoration techniques. I love showing off
a lot of techniques to my beginners… hoping that at least a couple of them “stick”
somewhere in their heads. If nothing else, it gets them excited to see more fun things
they can do with clay.

So we did some carving, basic sprigs, more slip, carving through slip and more.
The demo’s turned out to be a little too long for class, so I had to finish them up tonight.
And thanks again to my friend Amy Higgason for inspiring the carved & sprigged bowl.

And then we tackled making ovals on the wheel. And the “illusion” of making them look
like the whole piece may have been thrown on the wheel. So we did “the easy” method
of throwing the walls of a cylinder and attaching it to a slab. But the trick is to throw a deep
spiraled bottom piece, and then to stretch it to make the throwing rings appear oval-ized!
Some scoring & slipping… then some stamping & fluting… and today I finished them off
along the bottom edges and added some handles to the large casserole.
The smaller oval will remain handle-less! But still stamped… let’s not get crazy!!!

For a very long time, on that long list of things to do…
I finally got around to making & firing some textured soda slip test tiles.
I acquired quite a few slips from my potter-friend Emily Murphy when she moved to
Minneapolis. And yet I tend to go back to the old “tried & true.” Maybe because I wasn’t
sure how all of the new slips would “react” in the soda firing atmosphere. So I made test
tiles with one of my favorite handmade rolling pins, painted on some slip and fired them
in the kiln. Of course, I also had to make little “props” to hold them vertical in the kiln.

I’m excited to have new samples of the slips – all with a good amount of flashing
to show the range of colors & effects you can get in the soda kiln.

If you recall, I had a couple little mishaps while I was firing the kiln on Saturday.
The main one was the “electrical hiatus” that shut off the entire kiln in the middle
of the firing – as well as the neighborhood all around Lillstreet. Another one was when
I peeked into the bottom peep and noticed that one of the ornaments was “missing”
from it’s tripod. But wait… there were also five points on my cone pack when there should
have been only two at that temperature?! It took me a few confused moments to figure out
that they weren’t in fact “extra cones” – it was an errant ornament tripod! Apparently…
an ornament decided to jump off the third shelf, land on the second, and leave it’s tripod
on my bottom cone pack!

For those that are wondering… the cone pack looks extra groovy and is now a good
conversation piece. And the jumping ornament survived it’s adventure!

After a very hectic firing day on Saturday, it was a great relief to open
the kiln today to find out that everything turned out perfect. Good soda coverage,
good colors, good flashing. It’s a relief to have a kiln full of work done for the
upcoming art fair season… this far in advance! So I unloaded tonight and took
lots of pictures along the way… and I promise to post them very soon.
Here’s a couple shots of the full kiln just to whet your whistle. More to come…