It’s apparently IRIS SEASON… at least by looking in my garden! I’m totally enamored by all of the different iris colors, textures & aromas that are blooming along my garden this week. The smell of a good iris is totally a childhood flashback. Some people love the scent, some people don’t… I love it!!! Unfortunately, the flowers are short-lived… so enjoy them while you can!

Looks like Julie is enjoying her new green stamped platter & staying healthy too! Sure, mine would have a cheesecake or something on it… but these look good too! HA!!! Thanks for sharing Julie!

Another quiet morning with a few clouds gently wafting through. A nice respite from this week’s “heatwave” with slightly cooler morning temps & a nice breeze along the lakefront.

After the class discussion & demo about sgraffito, my SURFACE DECORATION class set-off to decorate their own pieces. The goal was to get crisp clean lines & patterns carved through the dark layer of slip or underglaze to reveal the lighter clay body. They really enjoyed using my collection of DiamondCore Tools to get some crisp & clean carving lines. The perfect way to let their creative expressions reveal themselves!

For my SURFACE DECORATION class last week, we tackled some sgraffito… decorative carving through a contrasting color layer to reveal the lighter clay body color below! We talked about a few techniques & tricks… and then I started carving a couple of my platters as a demo… and soon enough they were ready to tackle their own pieces! Good thing I had my DiamondCore Carving Tools ready for some crisp clean lines… that also made some pretty cool “zebra” layered clippings!

Sparkly & clean… brand new sgraffito carving tools from DiamondCore Tools. Thanks for making such great tools with sharp edges & comfy handles. I’ve been “hoarding” these new tools in my studio for a little while… but figured it was finally time to break them out to share with my SURFACE DECORATION class. They all assumed they would be doing sgraffito with their own regular trimming tools… but it was a great surprise for them to give these fantastic tools a test drive!!!

And another nice little “perk” from the nice folks at DiamondCore?…
all of their carving tools come with an “extra” spare blade!!!

Last Thursday night seemed like the “perfect” night to break out my newest batch of DiamondCore Carving Tools! Even more perfect as I got to share them with my students…

Prior to last week’s SURFACE DECORATION class, I threw these three large platters and added a band of black underglaze. The goal was to get them to a nice stiff leatherhard stage to be ready for our surface decoration project demo of the week. Yep… you guessed it… SGRAFFITO!!!

Another weekend, another art fair! This coming weekend will be the Hinsdale Fine Arts Show in Burlington Park. I’m excited to be headed out to the park & back to my usual booth space #69. Hoping you can stop by to say hello & maybe even give some handmade pots a good home!

Another “yellow towel situation” in class tonight. But the last time they offered s’mores-flavored OREOs they called them “S’more OREO’s.” Which I thought was odd… like they had missed the mark?! This time they fixed the name… and now it makes a LOT more sense!

“S’mOREOs”… I mean… I thought it was obvious!!!