It’s my BIGGEST art fair of the summer… well, technically kicking-off Fall. I will once again be in the Lower Barn with my double booth in E4 & E6. And I’ve been working long hours in the studio getting everything ready for this one. Not only will I have all of the mugs & bowls… but also some special “wall art pieces” that don’t get to travel to art fairs in my tent. As well as all of the newest Limited Edition “Creepy Clowns” for THE GHOULS COLLECTION… and pumpkins & other Halloween decor fun! Be sure to stop by this weekend… and bring some friends!!! It looks like it’s going to be a WONDERFUL weekend out in Barrington!!!

Handmade pottery always makes the flowers look better!!!

Another beautiful bouquet of farm-fresh dahlias from Vangie’s Farm… at yesterday’s Farmer’s Market in Andersonville. Such amazing colors & textures. I do love growing some dahlias in my garden… but they never get quite as amazing as these ones!!! Good thing I have plenty of vases ready to go whenever some new flowers come home with me!!!

Sometimes a blue vase just makes the blue hydrangeas even prettier! A stamped & soda-fired oval vase helps spread out the flowers so you can see more hydrangeas side-to-side!

We’re just about a week away… and I still have a lot of work to get done, glazed & fired before ART IN THE BARN in Barrington. Sure, I have some new platters & bowls ready to go… but I’m still working on my newest Halloween Ghouls!!! Racing towards the deadline as usual.

A quick glimpse into my soda kiln… starting with a pretty perfect cone 10 !!!

Day Two of my pottery workshop with the Fairbanks Potters Guild.
My fear was that when we returned to the studio all of their pots would be bone dry… or still soaking wet. I was hoping that they would be on the softer-side of leatherhard for good stamping… and they were!! YAY!!! We did a little heat-gunning to dry the stamps more before the potters arrived.

To get us started, I did a couple stamping demos using some bisqued stamps I brought with me. We also discussed how to use your texture tools to complement the design & shape of a pot… and maybe thinking the other way while throwing. Setting yourself up with a well-designed pot with good “canvas areas” for stamping later. So the stamps & textures are the focus, not an after-thought.

Throughout the day we stamped & textured everything. We also added some thick slip decorations to a few of the bowls… I love chattered slip!!! We trimmed our pots even though they were wetter than I would like. We even did a demo-on-demand for pulling handles… which I love! We also did some trimming & finishing of their hybrid mugs before adding handles. Again, we had a LOT of pots to work our way through… luckily we had all day!

This workshop was so much fun!!! They were a great group of people… so open, invested, encouraging & interactive. Everyone participated and I think had a great time making some newly-inspired pots. I was kind of wondering what I could offer a group of established potters… turns out there is always lot to share. I shared with them, and they shared with me! It will be interesting to see how they incorporate some of these new techniques into their pottery moving forward.

Huge thanks to all of the Fairbanks Potters Guild… you guys were the BEST!!! Thanks to my favorite Ida who was seemingly the all-knowing matriarch of the group… so much wisdom, so helpful, so nice!!! And thanks to Tammy for opening her studio & hosting the two-day event. Special thanks to Theresa for making this all happen. A simple email got me interested, and then Theresa worked out all of the details to make this workshop happen!!! Thanks to everyone for making this workshop a success & so much fun!!!

I love teaching. And I loved this workshop.
So if anyone else out there needs me to visit for a fun group workshop in your neck of the woods… just let me know! The more exotic the location the better!!! HA!!! I mean, it can’t hurt, right?!

Just another day at Summer Camp. Another day of encouraging the kids. Another day of spreading the word… “More is More!!! And several kids embraced my mantra & created their own masterpieces today!

Spent today playing hooky with my cousin Kim. We had a lot of great adventures & laughs along the way. We ended up at her place… where I saw her peach tree FULL of peaches. Too many peaches? Is there such a thing?… yes! They were EVERYWHERE!!! I can’t even imagine stepping out my back door to find hundreds of peaches at arms length. Crazy!!!

And yes… of course she sent me home with a bunch of homegrown peaches!!! So yummy!!!

Same stamp on a large platter! More surface to decorate means more impressions! A larger platter with one stamp… pressed in one by one by one… over & over & over again!!!