After a couple hours of “Pottery-Tetris” last Friday night… the back stack was loaded, and then the front two-thirds loaded. It filled up pretty quick & might be a little tighter than I would like it to be?! But confident that I’ll be able to “push” the soda deep into the kiln during the firing. All stacked & ready to brick-up the door! And then home for the night…

So last Friday night, I rolled my studio cart down to the kiln room… via the jenky freight elevator… yikes! Everything arrived safely and I was all glazed & wadded… ready to start loading the soda kiln. The challenge is always to “squeeze in” as many pots a possible… while still leaving enough open spaces for proper air-flow through the kiln so the soda atmosphere can make its way though to hit all of the pieces! Here we go…. giddy-up!

After hundreds of firings, the soda kiln at Lillstreet is showing some wear & tear… and will be replaced at some point. But until then, I do LOVE all of the crusty colors & patinas that have taken over the bricks. Such great textures to appreciate… purely from the build-up from the soda-firing atmospheric firings! Very cool.

Last Friday I was “greeted” with this… and empty kiln full of possibility! And yes, another soda firing weekend for me! I’ve been a little busy lately, so I apologize for the delay… but we can re-create my soda firing weekend now… a few days later!

Well, it looks like the collaboration project is finally “collaborating” together! Yep… this year it’s terra cotta flowerpots for the WIN!!! I made all of the flowerpots & water saucers with my stamping, and now Cory is adding her own special sort of handbuilt whimsy! Love her creativity… even more when you see them come together in COLOR!!! More photos to come… as the “Big Reveal” will happen at ART IN THE GARDEN this weekend in Glenview!

And speaking of “laboring” on Labor Day… now that metalsmith Amy Taylor has finished her part of our collaboration with all of her sgraffito doodles on my porcelain pieces, I can now get them into a glaze kiln quickly so they’re done & out in time for next weekend’s ART IN THE GARDEN! This one of the best features of ART IN THE GARDEN… several of the artists work together on different one-of-a-kind collaborations that will only be available next weekend in Glenview. And they’re all limited editions, so you might need to get there early!!!

Looks like Cory McCrory is busy in the studio “laboring” this Labor Day… still making more parts & pieces for our ART IN THE GARDEN collaboration project. We’ll be debuting our one-of-a-kind limited edition pieces next weekend in Glenview!!

After a full day of being “trapped” in the studio firing the soda kiln & cleaning my studio yesterday… it felt extra great to get out on my bike this morning for a little sunrise bike ride. So hard to believe that today is the start of September… wait, what?! When did THAT happen???

So someone commented on my last pumpkin post that the wanted pumpkins with no warts… wait, what?! I believe the warts are what makes them cute & have a personality! The more warts the better!!! More is more!!! But… maybe I’m the only one who feels that way? So I just cranked out another quick batch of pumpkins with no warts!!! We’ll see… they kinda look naked to me?!

Here’s a quick glimpse of a little “sumthin-sumthin” going on in Amy Taylor’s world. Just a little scratching, a little doodling, a little sgraffito-ing! Yes, metalsmiths can play with clay too… especially when it comes to collaboration projects for ART IN THE GARDEN!!! More to come… and mark your calendars for September 7th & 8th!!!