Inside the “care-package” were shadowbox picture frames for our upcoming “4×4 : FOUR MAKERS” pop-up show in a little over a week! These beautiful frames were HANDMADE by one of our four artists… Meghann Sottile! Such beautiful design & craftsmanship… with some crazy-cool corner joinery going on! So now each of the four artists needs to put something equally cool inside… worthy of these beautiful frames… that goes along with our thematic collaboration project. “4×4″… four artists, four frames each… sixteen in the collaboration!

Coming soon to Space 900 Gallery in Evanston – 816 Dempster, Evanston, Illinois
Friday, February 28. Saturday, March 1. Sunday, March 2

Don’t you love when you get a care-package from a talented artist friend?… packed up with anticipation inside!!! Can’t wait to show you what was inside!!!

Textured tiles… mini tiles kinda creating a “quilt” of sorts. Each individual tile is less than an inch square. Thanks to MKM Pottery Tools for cool handrollers that made most of these textures!

Celebrating a little TILE TUESDAY… with a photo of an installation on my back porch. All of the tiles were handmade… and now each tile hangs on a single nail. So they wiggle & swing when you swipe your hands across it.

More sunlight streaming through… creating cool angles & shadows on an upcoming “4×4 : FOUR MAKERS” pop-up collaboration project.

It might be freezing cold outside, but the sun streaming in through my dining room window this morning is giving me just a little of that tropical feeling. Wishful thinking…

There was a LOT of trimming that went on yesterday… so I had a lot of clay scraps everywhere. Perfect chance to “pulverize” my bone dry scraps before adding them to my reclaim bucket. The finer the bits, the smoother the reclaim!

And yes, bone dry clay is important for easier reclaiming of clay. I get frustrated all the time when I see students just tossing lumps of clay into a bucket filled with water… and then expecting it to do something magical to become reclaim?! Word to the wise… a wet lump of clay won’t get “wetter” in a bucket of water… it will still be a lump.

Handles attached… with plenty of time to spare before teaching class tonight!!!
This year’s Shamrock Mugs are now assembled and ready to start drying!
Wow… look at me way ahead of schedule!!! HA!!!

And in time for another Mugshot Monday!

The old-school traditional way. But then I like to loop them over onto themselves… so that the majority of the curve is already established as they start to stiffen up before attachment.

Got some clay nuggets here… ready to go… time to start pulling some handles!!!
And yes, contrary to popular opinion… I do love making handles.