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!

Well, I got a little busy… and the promised alliteration had to wait a couple days.
But I finally got into the studio to do some more work on the “textured terra cotta tubes.”
And the tubes are now taking shape – and becoming ceramic birdhouses!

This evening I worked on adding some of the finishing touches to the construction.
Now with roofs, “doors,” awnings, loops to hang by, and a hole which will be filled
after firing by a real wood branch for the birds to perch on.

Hopefully they will dry overnight. I put them on elevated plastic grids so that air can flow
all around them and they will dry more evenly… and quicker?! Fingers crossed…
If so, tomorrow I can stain them with underglaze, and glaze the roofs & awnings…
as I am hoping to get them into a kiln on Tuesday night, fire on Wednesday, cool Thursday
and unload late Thursday night… just in time for this weekend’s art fair in Hinsdale!

Tops. ‘Tachments. Treatments. Tomorrow.
… and hopefully more alliteration!!!

Tonight I’ve been working on “stitching together” some more of my “ClayQuilts.”
Small, soda-fired, textured tiles that are put together as a work of art for your wall.
And what appears to be random, is anything but. I find it interesting every time,
how much effort goes into making it look random while it is all very controlled.
Can’t have too many similar tiles in one area, need to keep colors dispersed evenly,
and I sometimes try to create “thematic” color combinations as I go!

Tomorrow, I’ll look at them again with fresh eyes, make a few alterations,
and start gluing them in place. Again, “forced random” as I like to put it.

Remember… before the soda firing, they were just a lot of textured clay squares
with a bunch of different colored & flashing slips on them for different effects.

Last night in my Beginning Wheel throwing class, some of my students asked
to do some basic handbuilding… so of course, I said yes. I think they’ve all realized
that throwing & trimming plates on the wheel is a little tougher than they expected.
And now they know that handbuilding is always an option… just because it’s a
wheelthrowing class, does not mean they can only make things on the wheel.
It’s just clay. And the wheel is just a tool.

So we started with some basic instruction & demonstration of pulling slabs and adding
some texture to them. Once decorated, the slab was then “draped” over a simple clay
coil “frame.” The plate slumps into the frame and the edge is smoothed & finished off.

Then, as a quick “show-stopper” demo… instant plates trimmed right off the block of clay!
Using a stretched out spring to cut the squiggles, and a straight wire to cut the under side.
Tonight, once they set-up a bit, I added some small feet to the underside for a bit of lift.
I can’t wait to see how these sculptural “plates” will turn out when the glaze pools!

To celebrate my taxes… Chris and I rode up to the Botanic Garden this afternoon…
where we like to turn around, refill the water bottles, chat, stretch, relax, etc.
And this time as we rode in, we were “greeted” by these really cool flower spikes.
Apparently, the Canary Islands have all the cool plants?!!!

I love the texture, the pattern, the swirling spiral, the spikes, the whole thing!
And the best part?… they will grow to be well over 8-feet tall! But apparently they take
two years of growing before they get to show off their intended, summer-long beauty.
Where else would you expect these stunners other than the Botanic Garden?

Who knew???… the come in purple too!
Not quite as tall, not quite as stunning, but still quite beautiful.

On the way back, the sun was setting… and the deer were out in abundance.
We like to call it “deer hunting” – basically just keeping an eye out for the deer
as we are pedaling past… hoping that none of them dash out in front of us.
Tonight we saw well over 30 deer along the bike trail… not bad for Chicago, huh?

Okay… so one of the studio potters at Lillstreet moved out of his studio
a few months ago. In his wake, he left a lot of mess, supplies, and buckets of glaze!
Now since I already have enough supplies & mess of my own – I claimed the buckets
of glaze! Sadly, I’m not really sure what they are, and I definitely don’t have
the recipes to make more. But free glaze is free glaze!!!

So… tonight I made a batch of test tiles for these “mystery” buckets of glaze!
Complete with stamps & textures to see how the glaze would work on my own
textured work. I’m going to test the glazes in both cone 10 reduction and the
soda kiln. I want to find out if any of them do really cool things in the soda kiln
atmosphere?! Or if they do really terrible things BEFORE I start glazing
a kiln full of work. Wouldn’t that be a bummer?

With my bathroom remodeling now complete, it has taken a little time to get used to
the changes. New colors. New tiles. New toilet. New towels. New vanity. New sink height.
New taller shower stall door that I no longer hit my head on when I get in & out everyday!
It’s the little things that make me happy… plus all of the textures to enjoy as well.
Including one of my favorite cups by fellow potter & friend Cory McCrory!