My  adorable niece Taylor is in first grade, and apparently it was time to make some
Thanksgiving decorations at school. My sister sent me a picture of Taylor’s turkey
masterpiece! A couple leaves, a few scribbles, a couple googlie eyes and voila’!!!

I love it. I know I’m kinda partial… but I think she’s got some real talent here!

Well… today was the first day of “Art In The Barn.” And I’m exhausted.
The last few nights I’ve been frantically making monsters, painting & glazing…
let alone pricing, packing and setting up my art fair booth. But it was all worthwhile
when today’s day at the art fair… great day, great sales, great fun!

Part of the fun is being in the Barn. It’s nice to be “protected” from the elements.
Plus I had a double-booth again this year, so I have plenty of space to spread out.
Which is a nice perk, but also a lot more work. A lot more shelves to shlepp out.
A lot more pots to make, price & pack. A lot more needed to fill the double space!
And it’s always so fun to see my latest pieces all set out & ready to go!

But after all of our hard work, my parents and I finally had the space all put together…
and ready for the onslaught of customers today! The weather turned out to be great.
Just a couple raindrops, but not enough to get wet. Dark clouds, but no storms!
Which turned out to be great shopping weather for those who came out to the Barn!

Another benefit of “Art In The Barn” is that I look at it as the official kick-off of my Fall season.
Now don’t get me wrong… I love Fall. But I also love Summer, and have a really tough time
admitting to myself that Summer may be coming to an end. The hospital folks who organize
“Art In The Barn” do such a great job decorating the place with hay bales, corn stalks,
pumpkins, gourds & mums that you can’t help but realize that it is indeed Fall.
It makes my work look pretty sweet too! I love the Fall color palette… and monsters too!

Special thanks to everyone who came out to “Art In The Barn” today. It was great to see
so many familiar faces… friends, family and loyal fans. Including my sister & her husband
who brought my niece Taylor. She loves coming to the art fairs, helping out wherever she
can, and this time, sporting a vibrant new hairstyle left-over from a “rock & roll” themed
birthday party the night before! She was surely rockin’ her new look much to the chagrin
of Mom & Dad. At the fair all day, as well as our family dinner that followed.

I had wonderful day in Barrington.
And look forward to another one tomorrow…

As the start of school is right around the corner, my 6-year old niece Taylor
wanted to squeeze in another trip to the studio to play in some mud. So we made plans
and played with some clay after summer camp today. She stopped by Lillstreet
with her mom (my sister Jennifer) and her grandparents (my Mom & Dad). We set out
to make some quick leaf-relief-stencil plates. We went outside to find some “good” leaves
with nice outlines and strong veins. We pressed them into some stoneware slabs and
painted over them with colored slip. As always… she was VERY focused on her project!

And then, after letting the slip dry for a few minutes, we carefully peeled out the leaves
to reveal the leaf reliefs!

Next we took our slabs and draped them over a few handmade “frame” molds. After pressing
the slabs carefully into place, we trimmed off the excess edges & finished them off. They are
now set to dry… and after they’re fired, I will glaze the plates in the their “chosen” glaze color!

We headed down to Navy Pier to continue her fun day in Chicago!

Little did she know it, but I had also arranged for her to attend a surprise performance
of “Cirque Shanghai Extreme” on the Skyline Stage on Navy Pier. My friend Kim is the
Production Manager, and she graciously “hooked us up” for the show! And Taylor loved it…
she was mesmerized during the show. Especially when the acrobats came out over
the audience and performed just feet above her!

And then, oh but wait there’s more… after the show, Kim also took Taylor under her wing
and with a nod & a wave, Taylor got a complimentary stuffed panda. Which was then
autographed by a couple of the acrobats! And then… Kim also asked if we wanted to go
backstage to see some of the props, costumes and the large globe cage!!!  And after seeing
four motorcycles all driving around & flipping around inside the cage, it was very cool
to go inside… sans motorcycles!

But her evening wasn’t over yet… once she saw the huge Ferris Wheel on the Pier, it was somewhat inevitable that we would be going for a ride. So we were once again “hooked up” and hopped on the ride – slowly taking us up well above Navy Pier. With fantastic views of the city and lake all around us!

But the fun continued… as it was Wednesday night, which also means Fireworks!!!
Yep, every Wednesday & Saturday night we’re treated to fireworks over the lake!
And with that… her magical Claydate Playdate had come to an end…

I’m pretty confident she had a wonderful time.
Okay, except for the moment when she found out she was just an inch too short
for the flying swings ride!!! But that was “corrected” with a huge swirled lollipop
for the drive home!

Well, today was Easter. And a nice day to spend with the family… while my kiln cools.
So I went out to my Aunt’s house in St. Charles, Illinois for the day. Typically, we’re
well into Spring by this time of year… but this year has been so cold & rainy. The closest
we got to a touch of Spring were the flowers in her stunningly beautiful ikebana vase…
courtesy of Fire When Ready Pottery!!!

After dinner, I did get out for a quick bike ride to pedal off today’s extra calories.
Luckily, my six-year old niece Taylor had brought her bike too. And now that she’s
excited to not be riding with training wheels anymore, we were off to the park
and around the neighborhood. For a true beginner, she’s off to a strong start!

Yesterday my family got together for the last of our Christmas celebrations,
this time with my Aunt Marilyn & cousin Kim who missed the first gathering.
Some more gifts. Some more food. Some more stories.
And one very special gift from my adorable five-year old niece Taylor!

She’s apparently been saving “supplies” in a drawer for awhile now, much to the
chagrin of her somewhat neat-nikish father Scott! But she finally made her vision
come true. With a beautiful art fair booth for me!!! Complete with snow-covered roof,
falling snowflakes, a Christmas tree and curled ribbon garlands.. that she had saved
from her Christmas presents! Adorable.

So this Christmas my 5-year old niece Taylor had “hinted” to my parents
that she wanted a dollhouse for Christmas. And that my Dad should build one
for her like he had built one for her Mom when she was a kid. She’s been playing with
her Mom’s dollhouse for years, but now she wanted her own!

And being the great Grandparents… how can you let a Christmas “hint” like that go by?!
So they got her the “huge” dollhouse she pointed out in the catalog. It’s apparently
sized for Barbie dolls, which also makes it taller than Taylor herself!!! It was camouflaged
in an oversized Christmas present. No gift tag. No name. But I think she may have guessed.
We all made her wait all day… for the final gift unveiling!

So I made her four different sets of “dinner plates” and two oval platters!
Each set with a different texture, pattern & glaze color. She’s been to the studio several
times and loves playing in the clay. She loves to flip-over all of my pieces to make sure
my signature is there. So yes.. I made sure to sign each little plate!

She was excited as she opened her present… and then proceeded to put plates in every
room of the house… on the porch… on the bed… and luckily, even the dining room table!

After a little splash of clear glaze… and nice electric firing…
my niece Taylor’s handmade set of dinnerware is all done! And ready for her
to cook us all dinner and serve it up on her new dishes! Shhh… don’t tell her…
I want them to be a surprise. She doesn’t know they’re done yet…

This afternoon after camp, my 5-year old niece Taylor stopped by the studio
to play in the clay along with my sister Jen (her mom), and my parents. It was
a special afternoon as she was working in clay, creating her own plates before she
heads off for her big adventure into starting Kindergarten! Taylor has been learning
to cook in the kitchen and loves to have people over so she can make lunch. So I
decided that she needs her own set of plates & bowls to serve her food on. We all worked
hard to make an 8-piece set of textured terra cotta plates & bowls. I made the slabs,
she did the textures, my mom helped slump them into the molds and my dad trimmed
off the extra clay. They all worked on the smoothing & painting… all with Taylor’s
design guidance and insistence!!!

And I’m sure you’ve already noticed… how adorable my niece & sister look in their
vibrant tie-dye shirts! You know how I loves me tie-dye!!!

After the plates were finished & painted, we had another quick tour of Lillstreet,
chatted with a few of my previous students (thanks Patrick), and looked at the kilns
and my studio. Then we headed off for dinner at Superdawg. Followed by a not-so-quick
18-holes of miniature golf. Considering it was only her second time golfing, she did
extremely well – and remained relatively focused & alert during the game!

My niece Taylor stopped by the studio today to play in the clay!
She brought her Mom & Dad (my sister) and her grandparents (my Mom & Dad)
to play with her. Since fall is quickly upon us, we decided to make autumn wreaths
out of terra cotta. We all started making clay leaves of different shapes & styles.

After we all had plenty of leaves, it was time to connect them all, layer them and
score & slip them all together to create our leaf wreaths. Layer after layer, leaf after leaf,
the wreaths came together. We then painted them with some underglazes to give
them some autumnal coloration. They’ll dry for the next couple days… then I’ll glaze them
and fire them! Sadly, we didn’t have quite enough time today. As always, the time flew by…
too many leaves, not enough time. So we did finish them… barely… but we would have
all liked another hour to finish them off & paint a few more details! Maybe next time?…

This week found me installing a “few” tiles…
arranging… trying to create that “controlled random” placement effect…
glueing… sliding… straightening… sliding… straightening again… and again…

My sister and her husband had “commissioned” me to do another tile wall
installation, much like the one in my place, but this time… in their home!
So I’ve spent the past few months making tiles, and trying to get enough tiles
soda fired for the installation. Complete with some “custom” tiles with their
names, initials, address and other fun things “hidden” in the textures!

We started with a blank slate – a section of the wall painted dark brown.
The cabinets will “frame” the tile installation as the plasma TV will “float” on top.
Soon to be the main focal point of their family room!

I started tiling with high hopes of finishing in just one session. That plan quickly
dissipated as I needed to leave a little early for a concert at Ravinia. So after
Day One, I was about halfway finished – and very excited about how it was looking!

So I came back a couple days later and picked up where I had left off.
I cranked up the caulking gun and started adhering tiles again! For this sort
of tile installation project, I like to use Dab “Seal & Peel” for the glue. It’s kind of like
industrial strength rubber cement. Idea being that if the homeowner ever decides
to move, they can easily peel each tile off the wall, rub the rubber cement off
the tile and the wall, and re-install the wall at their new place! Plus, we leave the
brown wall paint showing instead of trying to grout around all of the textured tiles!

Well into the second “session” of tiling, my niece Taylor decided to take on
the role of “project photographer” and document the momentus tile event.
Surprisingly, she actually did a really nice job with the camera!

So the tile installation process went fairly smoothly. The real kicker is that
every tile starts to slide down the wall before the glue sets up. Damn gravity!!!
I think that is the main downside to the “Seal & Peel” adhesive… it doesn’t dry
fast enough. So as you add more, you always need to go back and straighten
the others. It’s like keeping those darn circus plates spinning up on sticks!!!

So after two sessions of tiling, a lot of straightening, some bad fumes and a little
playtime & biking with my niece Taylor… the wall was finally done. We re-installed
the plasma TV, connected the bottom speaker then sat back to admire the new wall.

And then it was done… finally…  just a mere 1,145 tiles later!!!