So the past couple days I’ve been swarmed by pirates everywhere!!! Working feverishly in my studio to get these little “Ghouls” done in time for ART IN THE BARN this weekend in Barrington. I finally got them all assembled. Cute in terra cotta brown… even cuter in color, but still painting!

Moving right along… forty faces done… next up?… character details! The newest addition to The Ghouls Collection is well under way… gotta have them all done by next weekend! Yikes!!! The “big reveal” happens at ART IN THE BARN in Barrington!

Okay, that’s a good start! Gotta stay focused if I’m going to have these done in time for ART IN THE BARN! I finished throwing them all tonight… now I just have to “ghoul-itize” all forty of them!

Trapped air inside a piece WILL explode if there’s not an escape hole!

When I was assembling my ART IN THE GARDEN collaboration wall vases, I apparently neglected to add escape holes on the bottom half of this vase. And voila’… shattered during the firing – blew right off! Just proving the theory… as it happens to all of us at some point! Good thing I made a couple extras…

Looks like Cory McCrory is in the final stretches with our collaboration project. Just putting some finishing touches, staining, sealing & assembling all of the parts & pieces… before se starts choosing the “perfect” trio of flowers for each of the wall vases that I made. Another wonderful collaboration project with Cory coming together in the nick of time for ART IN THE GARDEN this weekend!

Doing a little last-minute underglaze staining on the colorful characters for ART IN THE GARDEN! Painting some black underglaze on the cups, and then wiping it away so it only stays in the grooves, textures & edges.

If all goes well, these little cuties will be all ready for their “Big Debut” at ART IN THE GARDEN this weekend!!! C’mon by early to collect your favorites characters!!!

So while I was soda-firing all day yesterday, I also took some time to clean-off my teacher shelves, do a little wipe-down & tackle the piles of bisque! My students all know that glazing is my least favorite part of the process… so my class demo pieces tend to pile up. Sometimes for several sessions! So yesterday I finally glazed everything (except for the platters… let’s not get crazy!) while I was there firing.

Sure, I might not have been too “creative” with my glaze choices… but at least they’ll be done! And making room for NEW demo pots when we start the class session in a week!

It took a couple hours Friday night, but I finally got my pots stacked in the soda kiln. I tried my best and fit “almost” everything in… just a few stragglers that didn’t quite fit in the end. Guess they’ll just have to wait until my next firing in October?!

Plenty of pots & pumpkins… all glazed, wadded & ready for the soda kiln. The masking tape is just a little “seat belt” to keep everything in place on the shelves as I bring my cart form my studio downstairs on the rickety freight elevator! Spent my Friday night loading the kiln… after the last day of Summer Camp!!!

So once I had my cylinders stamped & trimmed, Amy Taylor came over to my studio to work on her part of our second ART IN THE GARDEN collaboration project. Amy makes a great line of jewelry that has these whimsical characters on them… called “ADORBS.” So I thought it would be great fun if Amy worked her “ADORBS” magic in clay on the side of my cylinders! And she did!!!