With the weekend cold-front moving through with threats of frost up in Wisconsin, looks like Kristy has been pulling in the last of her garden’s flowers inside to enjoy. Before they freeze to death… ugh... good plan Kristy!

After a quick stop at the Andersonville Farmer’s Market this afternoon… I came home with some veggies & an AMAZING bouquet of dahlias from Vangie’s Farm. She custom-designs bouquets for you right on the spot… using your color choices & while blending her flowers & textures. We all know how much I LOVE dahlias… and I just happened to have the perfect oval vase to put them in!!! Shocking, right?! HA!!!

There are only two more Farmer’s Markets on the calendar…
be sure to stop by to grab some amazing flowers!!!

A single dahlia flower in a simple ikebana vase… stamped & soda-fired. A striking floral statement on any table.

Some of my favorite flowers in one of my favorite vases! A perfect combo for the back porch! Seasonal black-eyed susans in a stamped & soda-fired vase!

Sometimes a single flower can be enough.
Big impact from a homegrown dahlia in a handmade ikebana vase.

So tonight’s class demo was stacked two-part vase! I threw a 4-pound bottom cylinder, and then another 4-pound top cylinder that was bottomless. After they set-up a bit, I scored & slipped them & attached the two halves. Smoothed out the connection seam… then tried to smooth it out & reshape it into a nice, tall vase shape.

As I told my class, I would have liked to have the clay set-up a lot longer. But for class demo timing, we decided to go for it even though we all knew the clay was far to wet to hold up. So when the bottom section started to squish as we knew it would, we decided to cut it in half to see how thick the walls were. And I think it looks pretty good… nice thin & even walls… but you can clearly see how wet & squishy the clay was! We all knew it should have set-up more… but sometimes it’s fun to show a “fail” demo too!!!

Beautiful flowers in a square vase… stamped & soda-fired by me!!! The flowers are straight out of Rhonda’s garden… she must have a green thumb, huh?! Thanks for sharing with us Rhonda!

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who came out to the Glenview Summer Art Fair this weekend. We had perfect weather both days… with some rain overnight which didn’t affect us at all… whew! So much fun seeing so many people enjoying the weekend & appreciating local artisans. A lot of pots found their new forever homes!

My art fair booth flowers survived the weekend as well… so now they get to hang out a few extra days in a nice stamped & soda-fired vase on my back porch! I love a good oval vase as they spread the flowers out a bit more side-to-side… instead of just slamming them into a circular vase opening.

You gotta love when your art fair friend brings your fresh flowers from her garden for your booth display! I mean, I’m sure she knew I would have plenty of vases to put them in! Thanks Rhonda… you’re the best… they’re beautiful!!!!

So this is what happens when you accidentally break off a lantana blossom while watering on the back porch… and then you just happen to have the perfect mini vase for it too!!!