This afternoon I made a quick trip to Chicago Ceramic Supply.
So I now have enough terra cotta & clear glaze to start some Halloween production!
Tis’ the season to start carving Jack-O-Lanterns, right?!
Especially if I hope to have some ready for “Art In The Barn.”

“Art In The Barn” – Saturday, September 28th & Sunday, September 29th, 2013.
On the grounds and in the barns surrounding Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital
in Barrington, Illinois. I will once again be in my double booth in the Lower Barn.
More details to come when it gets a bit closer.

Click here for more information about Chicago Ceramic Supply.

It was a very long week.
My Summer Campers this week were a bit younger than I’m accustomed to. Typically I work with the older kids (8-12 yerar olds), but this week I had 5-7 year olds.. and a 4-year old to top it off. I had to alter my project plans a bit, and change my expectations, but in the end they made some great projects… including these terra cotta plates.

I unloaded my latest electric kiln last night and got out these cute little terra cotta trays. They’re small & textured… ready to be matched-up with my new salt & pepper shakers!

While my soda kiln was cooling today, I took a chance to make some terra cotta planters & trays. I figure I’ve got a few hours today to make things, and then a couple days to dry & fire them before they’re ready for the Schaumburg Prairie Arts Festival this next weekend. Gotta love a good once-fired terra cotta project!!!!

And some small terra cotta trays for my new salt & pepper shakers. I just hope they fit?! I measured, but these look a little smaller than I expected? And now they’re going to shrink when they’re fired?… uh oh…

The flower pots we made for Taylor’s birthday party finally came out of the kiln.
And they all look adorable!!! The kids did a great job on them all. I’m sure if we had
had a little more time, we could have refined them a bit, added a little more glaze,
and made them a little more “perfect.” But it’s that same “lack of perfect” that makes
them SO cute!!! And such a great souvenir from Taylor’s eight birthday party!!!

Maybe I’m just the proud Uncle.
And she has been here before, so she does have some clay experience.
But I must admit that I think that Taylor’s is the nicest of the lot. I really liked her use
of stamps for texture & pattern. And when she decided to make it as a birthday gift for
her Mom (my sister) it was very touching. Especially when she misspelled “birthday”
by accidentally forgetting the “th.” It was adorable. But then her Dad couldn’t resist
and had to step in and fix it… “Dad, step away from the clay.”

Callie went with the full Spring motif. She stamped in words, textures & patterns…
and then glazed it accordingly. She even had trees, grass, sky… everything Spring!

Jody went more for the two-tone effect. Splitting his pot in half with yellow & white.
And then adding a splash of green inside and around the water drip tray.

Charlie started with a nice design. Using  three heart stamps around the pot, and then
putting his initials in each one of them. And then he found the blue glaze…

Twin brother Theo liked the blue glaze too apparently?!

Piper was the most focused on color! She couldn’t get enough of it. I think she did the
best job of painting her piece. I tried to get them all to put on two layers of glaze…
but as you can see, Piper actually did and got the most vibrant results!

Once the kids were done with their flower pots, I kinda felt like I needed to make one too!
So I decided to make s flower pot for Taylor’s birthday… especially since she decided to make
her flower pot as a birthday gift for her Mom (even though her Mom’s birthday isn’t until
December?) I figured she needed one to keep for herself. It was a fun birthday party…
and soon she’ll have a great memento from their day at the studio!!!

And of course I can’t give it to her empty, right?! So I planted it with a beauty kalanchoe
plant with bright pink flowers. What little 8-year old girl would like bright pink flowers?!
And I’m pretty sure it might be her very first houseplant too!

She’ll see her finished flower pot, everyone else’s pieces and get her own flowery gift
tomorrow! I hope she likes it!!! We’re doing the “family” birthday party tomorrow
and she’ll see it then. Shhh… don’t tell her… don’t spill the beans!!!

Friday…
After the Lillstreet staff party on the rooftop, I threw a LOT of pieces & parts.
Throwing both stoneware and terra cotta in alternating “waves”  and trying to clean up
everything between each so that things didn’t get all mixed up!

Saturday…
When I came into the studio, I altered the cylinders into oval shapes & stamped them.
I also started giving some shape to the pumpkins… both large & small. Turning the smooth,
round thrown shapes into irregular pumpkins!

Sunday…
I attached bottoms to the oval cylinders and added some more details to the pumpkins.
First it was the stems, then it was carving the Jack O’Lantern faces and warty-bumps!

Monday…
I added colored slip details to the ovals, and painted the pumpkins with colored underglazes.
Painting the pumpkins really brings them to life.

And now, everything is sitting in front of a couple fans overnight… as they are being “rushed”
to get into an electric kiln tomorrow night. I even placed them all on plastic grids elevated on
wood sticks so that air can circulate under the pots as well… hoping to dry them faster &
more evenly!!! And if all goes well, everything will come out well. And the Halloween novelties
I was so motivated to complete will make it to the Barrington art fair in time!!!

I also took a lot of photos throughout the production line.
Coming soon… I’ll be posting some step-by-step process pictures of all three shapes!

Yesterday I spent the day with my cousin Michael from Minnesota and his family.
They came down to Chicago for Spring Break and we had planned a full day of clay fun
at the studio. We started making terra cotta planters with textures – everyone working
on their own planter. They all learned the basics… and set off to work…

And then, unfortunately… the day took a turn!
As we were about halfway done with our planters, I started feeling a little light-headed.
A little dizzy… and the next thing I knew, I was down for the count. Literally. Down.
Drama. Embarrassment. Paramedics. And a trip to the hospital to get checked out.

Apparently, I was dehydrated and my body wasn’t happy with that. They checked my vitals
and everything was fine. Except for the back of my head where it “met” the wedging table
on the way down. So I now have four staples on the back of my head. Yeah, souvenirs!

The doctor said I should get plenty of liquids and bring up my blood sugar level…
so we all went for a wonderful dinner at my favorite restaurant Rose Angeli’s.
And I had plenty of HOT caramel sauce for medicinal purposes!

Last Spring, I made a collection of textured terra cotta planters.
It never crossed my mind that they would need water drip trays to go with them…
because in my mind, I would be using the terra cotta planter outside and would not
use a tray?! But when I posted pictures, I got a few comments from people asking me
here the trays were?! Uh oh…

So… I quickly made another collection of textured terra cotta planters WITH trays!
And we started out the summer art fair schedule with both options.
With tray. Without tray. I was anxious o see which would sell better.

It didn’t take long for us to see that practically everyone wanted a tray.
Who knew?! Not me apparently. But by the end of the art fair season, I had no more
planters with trays. But I did have the tray-less planters. So tonight I finished up a
bunch of trays to “complete” the planter sets for this season.

So now they’re drying. Then they’ll be stained with black underglaze to “antique” them
a bit and make the textures pop. Then it’s a layer of glaze on the bottom… and into the kiln!
And if all goes well, last year’s “trayless” planters will this year BETRAYED!!!

While I was at the studio today covering us for Open Holiday Hours,
I also found time to make three textured terra cotta trays – part of a special order
for a special customer. Her plan is to place three of my oil lamps on the tray!

Once they dry, I’ll wash them all with black underglaze and then gently wipe off the top layer…
leaving the underglaze in the stamped textures and giving it all an aged patina.

Last night at the studio, I finally got around to adding the textured rims around
the top of my new planters. Coil, attach, texture. Coil, attach, textures. Repeat.

Today I’m headed back to the studio to add feet and drainage holes… and then start
on the water drainage trays that will go with this batch of planters! After the online
discussion about the last batch, the response was mixed as to whether or not terra cotta
planters even need water trays?! So we all kind of decided to leave the first batch
“trayless” and make a second batch with trays. Then we’ll see how they sell…
and if there is a definitive answer after the first couple art fairs this spring?!