Another huge THANK YOU to all of our loyal customers who came out to our grassroots ART IN THE GARDEN last weekend. Especially those who got there and snatched up some of our one-of-a-kind collaboration projects! Like these black & white sgraffito platters… where I made the porcelain pieces & metalsmith Amy Taylor did the sgraffito doodles. I think they turned out great.. and they all disappeared very quickly!!! So thanks again for supporting your favorite artists!

What’s black & white… and red all over?
Thanks George for sharing your fresh tomatoes in one of our porcelain sgraffito collaboration pieces from ART IN THE GARDEN! The colorful tomatoes totally “pop” on the black & white dish!

One more reminder… in case you’ve missed any of my previous posts?… ART IN THE GARDEN is this weekend!!! Saturday & Sunday from 10:00am-5:00pm in Glenview. These sgraffito platters are just a couple of the collaboration projects you’ll find at the show. Amy Taylor & I have been working on these sgraffito pieces… but most of the other artists have been collaborating with each other as well. So there will be a LOT of one-of-a-kind collaborations you won’t find anywhere else! We’ve been having a great time working together on these pieces. We hope you come see the, in person!

For more details – https://www.grassrootsartfair.com/

Just a bit more of a “teaser”… a bit more of the sgraffito platters that Amy Taylor & I have been working on as our collaboration project for ART IN THE GARDEN. We’ll have a limited number of platters, shallow bowls & more with her whimsical illustrations hand-carved through black underglaze to reveal the white porcelain.

Mark your calendars… September 9th & 10th in Glenview!

Just a little sneak peek at some of the “characters” who will be showing up at ART IN THE GARDEN next weekend! Metalsmith Amy Taylor has been working on a few of my porcelain platters doing some adorable sgraffito carvings as part of our collaboration project. She’s created a whole menagerie to share with us at ART IN THE GARDEN… can’t wait to show them off in-person!

More info – www.grassrootsartfair.com

So I gave some porcelain platters & bowls to Amy Taylor with a band of black underglaze around the rims. I also gave her a couple of my favorite DiamondCore Tools for her to play with. Looks like she’s been doing some amazing sgraffito work for our collaboration pieces for ART IN THE GARDEN in Glenview. We’re all trying to finish up our collaborations as we’re just a week and a half away… mark you calendars for September 9th & 10th!

Click here for more info – https://www.grassrootsartfair.com/

A quick layer of black underglaze makes stark contrast with the white porcelain clay. Just making a few more pieces for Amy Taylor to play with… she’s doing some fun sgraffito sketches on the black areas specifically for ART IN THE GARDEN. It’s my next art fair in Glenview where many of the artists work together on special one-of-a-kind collaborations! This is just one… I have a few more collaborations “under wraps” to share soon… but first, time to go teach my Beginner’s class!!!

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

Fun little flakes scattered all over my latest sgraffito platter. My DiamondCore Tools make nice crisp carving lines… but this platter is already a little drier than I’m used to, so the flakes are everywhere!!!

After the class discussion & demo about sgraffito, my SURFACE DECORATION class set-off to decorate their own pieces. The goal was to get crisp clean lines & patterns carved through the dark layer of slip or underglaze to reveal the lighter clay body. They really enjoyed using my collection of DiamondCore Tools to get some crisp & clean carving lines. The perfect way to let their creative expressions reveal themselves!

For my SURFACE DECORATION class last week, we tackled some sgraffito… decorative carving through a contrasting color layer to reveal the lighter clay body color below! We talked about a few techniques & tricks… and then I started carving a couple of my platters as a demo… and soon enough they were ready to tackle their own pieces! Good thing I had my DiamondCore Carving Tools ready for some crisp clean lines… that also made some pretty cool “zebra” layered clippings!