At the “glitter gig” today, the florist was using ornamental pineapples in her work.
I loved the colors, textures, stripes and spikes!!! All in one place.

So here we are… Month #2 in our Holiday Ornament Challenge!
Sarah Chapman and I have committed to creating a new ornament every month.
Mine will be clay, her’s will be metal. Who knows?… some day maybe a combo?

Sarah’s ornament this month is copper with brass chain connecting the pieces and has
a “torch” patina. She made the copper bells using a form folding technique called the
“Heisted Cup.” Here’s a link for all you metal’s people out there who would like to try it.
Click here… “Heisted Cup.” The process is magical. And I especially love the “torch”
patina effect on copper. So much fun… and maybe three angels will get their wings?!

My ornament started out as a star pillow, but then I got a little carried away. I decided that
the “pillows” don’t need to be closed.  So I left the sides open, leaving a nice void inside.
My plan is to soda-fire these – and I hope that the inside gets some groovy flashing marks.
So far, the plan is that one side is painted with flashing slip, and the other side will have some
glaze inlaid into the impressions. Once they’re fired, they’ll also get a metal hoop going
through the middle of the star to hang from like my original ornaments.

Unfortunately, again this month, I don’t have any fired ornaments to show off yet.
I’m still building enough work to fill the kiln before I can fire it. So the pieces are piling up.
Once I have some pieces fired and ready to show… you’ll see these and all previous
ornaments again. Finished & fired… not just greenware… again!

Some of them are dry. Some of them are not.
But of course, ALL of them are textured.

Last night I drove out to Oakbrook to see “Sunset Boulevard” at Drury Lane.
It’s a classic Andrew Lloyd Weber stage production. A musical remake of the 1950
Billy Wilder classic black & white movie. Chronicling the faded glory & delusional life
of silent screen actress Norma Desmond. To this day, the classic movie is still listed
as the 16th best movie ever by the American Film Institute. I’ve seen the movie…
and tonight I finally saw the musical at Drury Lane. It’s a good production with a
creepy, eerie & delusional Norma Desmond…. who is ready for her closeup Mr. DeMille.
Of course we had to get food first… so why not indulge at The Cheesecake Factory!?

While we were at Drury Lane for “Sunset Boulevard”, there is also a lot to see in the lobby.
Lots of things that sparkle. And since I was with my metalsmith friend Pam who is known
by some as the “Queen Of All That Sparkles”, we had a lot of sparkle to admire!

But it’s not just the chandeliers to admire… the pressed textured tile ceiling is pretty
darn impressive too! Love the pattern. Love the grid. Love the subtle coloration.

Sadly, not everything is quite wonderful at Drury Lane. The carpets are quite “lovely.”
And yet somehow I have a weird fascination with the crazy carpet designs found in
hotels everywhere! I may need to start a collection of hotel carpet photos?!

Towards the end of last year, I had become kind of enamored with my new, slightly larger,
textured tiles. Now don’t get me wrong… they’re by no means large. They’re just a smidge
bigger. And I’m still digging ’em… so I had to make more!!!

By the end of the night, I had pretty much covered my entire work table. So I was done.
I put all of my tiles on a plastic grid so they can dry more evenly. It doesn’t always work,
but they seem to dry more evenly, with less warpage, when they have air drying them from
all sides, top & bottom. It’s a little “trick” I learned from friend & tile-maker Mike Skiersch.
It’s a simple “trick” using the plastic grids they put in suspended ceilings to help “hide” the
fluorescent light fixtures. Any hardware store has them… and they’re pretty darn cheap!!!

I stopped by Lillstreet Art Center this evening to drop-off a few things, pick-up a few things,
chat with a few friends, water my studio plants… and see what I’ve been missing as I’ve been
too busy to get much done in the studio lately. Too busy with holiday projects & preparations.
But never too busy to get a wonderful porcelain present from Terry Hogan.

Another wonderfully precise, pierced & patterned porcelain beauty to add to my collection!

Merry Christmas to me… and thank you again Terry!!!

It’s been a busy week setting up for this coming weekend’s Holiday Home Show…
let alone a whirlwind tour of Dallas, Washington DC and Boston (more to come).
But I also took time out today to help my friend Catherine Tweedie fire her soda kiln.
She unloads on Monday… and I can’t wait to see her lovelies!!! While we were firing,
I did manage to make another batch of tiles in a new, slightly larger size!

Fresh from the kiln… more soda-fired textures on the sides of my new slab vases!
All of which will be available at the Holiday Home Show in two weeks!

Tonight was my last chance to make some new pieces for this weekend’s soda kiln.
I have a bisque kiln scheduled for tomorrow… so I’ve got to get these done, slip painted,
dried and ready to go into the kiln quickly. So I decided that some more large textured
slab vases might be a good way to go. And here are some more textures on the slabs…
soon to become textured vases!