Another batch of textured tiles in the studio.
Drying on a plastic grid hoping to avoid warping.

C’mon… could he BE any cuter?
And could he have found a better “backdrop” to play in front of. He might just be the new poster child for my ClayQuilts.

Raylan is the son of my cousin Kim’s boyfriend Don’s daughter Erykah.
A bit confusing, but adorable nonetheless.

Last minute assembly as we’re getting ever closer to ART IN THE BARN. So while we’re packing, pricing & setting up today, these wooden jewelry boxes will hopefully be drying. Gotta keep the tiles in place so I can sell “something new” at The Barn this weekend.

A few more “batches” of tiles. All textured, color-slipped and cut to size. Still drying. You can still see the difference in the batches and how some are darker (wetter) than the others.

The tiled collaboration pieces I made with my friend Cory McCrory had a really great reception during “Art In The Garden” last weekend. It was so much fun to see people enjoying our collaboration. Especially when they would take time to “figure them out”… and when they belted out a good belly laugh when they got it. But now that our “Garden” Party is over, we have a couple collaboration pieces available. They’re a VERY Limited Edition… don’t miss out on one of these last six pieces.

Bleeding Heart

Foxglove : SOLD 9.7.14

Poison Ivy

Spider Plant  : SOLD 9.8.14
And notice how the green tiles are “straight” vines at the top and curled patterns at the bottom much like the way a Spider Plant grows!

Spider Flower – aka Cleome.

Butterfly Bush  – complete with a magnifying glass to see the “tiny bits.”

Here’s the info about the West End Art Festival in LaGrange this weekend. Cory will be there with the last six of our collaboration pieces. They’ve been going fast… don’t miss out. And say hello to Cory for me while you’re there…

If you’re interested in a collaboration piece, but can’t make it out to LaGrange this weekend, you can also send Cory a message on her Facebook page. Click here to connect… and “save” one for yourself!!!

It was a beautiful setting in Amy Taylor’s backyard for the first “Art In The Garden”. Five artists sharing their art… only to be upstaged by Mother Nature herself with some of her beautiful handwork. Whether is was her beautiful flowers, the striking clouds or the shadows they provided… it was a wonderful weekend in the garden!!!

It was so much fun “unveiling” the collaboration pieces that I’ve been working on with Cory McCrory today at “Art In The Garden.” Watching people figure out the visual puns & appreciating the witty humor.

So glad that a few of them have already found happy homes!!!
I hope they bring smiles to their new owners for years to come… George actually laughed out loud when he figured out the “racy” tile representing Butterfly Bush. Yep… let your imagination wander for a bit…

So we’ve been “teasing” you for a long time now… and we’ve been working on these since mid-June. And now the big weekend is finally here and Cory & I are ready to show off our Collaboration Project.

I approached my friend Cory McCrory back in June during the Hinsdale Fine Art Fair. We were both scheduled to be part of Amy Taylor’s Grassroots Art Fair. And with my marketing background, I knew that we needed a “hook” of some sort. So we devised a plan… if we work together on a Limited Edition set of Collaboration pieces, we’ll have something fun to blog & post, as well as something really fun to show-off at “Art In The Garden.”

By now you may have figured it out… visual puns of some popular garden plants.
Each of Cory’s tiles are handbuilt with paperclay to represent the plant name. All of them whimsical, some with a twisting play on words… and others just a little bit racy. My part of the collaboration was to make textured tiles for the surrounding space. Pretty much the field tiles of green are surrounding the art tile in the center… kinda like “Art In The Garden” of green tiles!!!

So here’s the BIG REVEAL!!! You’ve waited long enough…
and now they’re all ready for their Big Debut this weekend.

“Art In The Garden : A Grassroots Art Fair”
Saturday, August 30th & Sunday, August 31st – 10:00am-5:00pm.

1205 Hutchings Avenue,  Glenview,  IL 60025
One block west of Waukegan Road between Lake Street & Glenview Road.
More specifically between Grove Street (at a light) and McLean Court.

So here they are… wait no longer…
And remember, they will be at “Art In The Garden” while quantities last.
First come, first served. And when they’re gone, they’re gone!!!

1. Black-Eyed Susan … she was the one that started it all.
What started out as just a play on words for my favorite flowers… changed and now this!

2. Foxglove

3. Bleeding Heart

4. Hens & Chicks

5. Spider Plant

6. Butterfly Bush

7. Queen Anne’s Lace

8. Poison Ivy

9. Dinosaur Food

10. Black-Eyed Susan

11. Spider Flower

12. Butterfly Bush

13. Poison Ivy

14. Queen Anne’s Lace … actually, it’s more like Queen Anne’s Lacey Panties!!!

15. Bleeding Heart

But wait… that’s only fifteen?!!!… I thought there were originally sixteen?!!!

Okay, so here’s the deal…
Remember back a couple weeks when I was kind of “gloating” that I had made almost DOUBLE the number of tiles I needed to finish my part? Well, I was wrong. I never said I was good at math.

Somehow I had determined that I needed about 450 tiles for my part of the collaboration with Cory. Not sure how. But when I was glazing & loading the kiln I was “sure” that I had made almost twice as many as I needed.

Good thing.

Turns out I needed 768 tiles to go along with the 16 center tiles that Cory had made.
With 48 tiles per board, that makes a total of 768 tiles.
Now remember back to my previous post… I had made & glazed 724 tiles.
Which I thought was MORE than enough. WRONG!!! Again… NOT good with math!!!

So I had to get a little creative with one of them… as I had just enough of the green glazed tiles to do 15 collaboration pieces! So one of them now has a collection of soda-fired tiles instead. And I kinda love how it brings out the color of the Fox and his gloves!!! Who knows… I might “need” to keep this one for myself?!

16. Foxglove

All of tiles are finally glued onto our Collaboration Pieces.
Seven hundred & sixty-eight tiles… that’s a LOT of tiles & a LOT of adhesive!!!

Drying now while I start to pack-up for “Art In The Garden.”
And then a quick photo-shoot of the finished pieces for The Big Reveal.
Come see them in person tomorrow!!!

Okay, so everything has finally been glued in place…
and now they’re all drying. With a fan blowing on them so it goes faster???
Until I pack them up, I have a dining room table COVERED with tiled fun agina!!!