Tonight I made some small textured terra cotta trays for my latest batch of salt & pepper shakers. They’re drying on a plastic grid with the hope that it will help avoid warping.

Of course the weights I put on top of them will help too!!!

After my sunrise at Port Mahon, I was riding back to the hotel and I passed the same cemetery I had seen a couple weeks ago. This time, the wheat had just been harvested… so I didn’t feel bad walking in to take a closer look at the headstones. And it turns out that I was right… some of them are VERY old!!!

Love the old, weathered stone with moss growing over the carvings.

Ready to take a long walk off a short pier?! So serene. So calming.

And you know how I love rusty metal… and weathered wood is a very close second! So I especially loved the textures of the wooden pier and the green algae-moss growing on it.

After setting up in Hinsdale, I made it home in time to put some finishing touches on a few more new ClayQuilts. Arranging my handmade tiles onto boards to hang on the wall. Glueing them down so they’re dried and ready to take to the art fair in the morning. You know how tough it is to make them look so random???

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!

Bowl #2 – Originally a plain bowl with a bent-out, flanged rim.
Now with a little accent border of stamped texture!

Bowl #3 – Originally a flared out rim & fluted edges.
Now with a border of stamping just below the fluted fun.

Bowl #4 – Originally a large plain flange on a small bowl.
Which is really just a great “canvas” to do some stamping, right?

Bowl #5 – This one was originally just a bowl with a split rim.
Now it’s stamped and pinched back together in all the right places!

Bowl #6 – In class we left this one with the split rim and pinched together in 8 places.
I added a couple stamps, some little add-ons and a bit of curving.

When I parked my bike to take some more pictures this morning, I found some really great colors & textures growing on the side of the tree.

After bowling, pizza & ice cream, I went back to the studio for an evening of stamping. The pieces that I threw yesterday were a soft-leatherhard, some more so than others. So I started with the drier ones to allow the wetter ones to stiffen up while I was stamping. My plan worked. All stamped and wrapped up again for the night.

Don’t forget to “Spring Forward” tonight… and change your clock.
Remember to move your clocks ahead one hour before you go to bed tonight.
It’s time to go back into Daylight Saving Time… or losing an hour of your Sunday?!
And wouldn’t it be more fun if you were changing the time on one of THESE clocks?!

Gotta love a good steampunk clock. And the whole “Steampunk Movement”
for that matter. Rusty. Crusty. Gears. Patterns. Layers. Details. Groovy cool.

My friend Kristen brought her son AJ to Lillstreet today for a kid’s birthday party.
Kristen and I went for ice cream, hot fudge & more hot fudge while he played at his
party. Afterwards, AJ came up to my studio and made a few holiday star ornaments
of his own! So adorable. So much fun to have a little studio “apprentice” today!

Rolling the clay… pressing in textures… and cutting out stars. Instant ornaments!!!