While the clouds seem to have moved in for the day, this morning started off with clouds in all the right places. Beautiful sunrises reflections & lighthouse silhouettes to start the day.

Another TEXTURE TUESDAY with some fun textures & glaze pooling effects on these soda-fired “hybrid” mugs! I’m always enamored with this glaze effect when it comes out of the soda kiln… and the glaze highlights & breaks in all the right places!

When you can’t quite decide, it’s always best to have friend with you at lunch so you can split & share TWO yummy sides! Like these amazing pancakes we had out in Elmhurst… Blueberry & Lemon Cheesecake pancakes or Peanut Butter Cup pancakes! I couldn’t decide… so Emma was willing to share with me.

So?… which flavor would YOU choose???

Celebrating another MUGSHOT MONDAY with more stamped mugs straight out of my latest soda kiln. Bright colors & good flashing effects coming together on this batch of mugs! Looking forward to taking these to my first few art fairs this summer… coming sooner than you think!

Celebrating EARTH DAY with a bunch of little green sprouts in my dining room window! Lots of zinnia seedlings… looks like I might need to do some thinning out before they get too big?! And some dahlia sprouts in the larger containers. Can’t wait for warmer weather & warmer nights so I can get these planted outside so they can really start to flourish! Hoping for some great flowers in the front yard gardens this summer!

Celebrating a little bit of EARTH DAY today with admiration & appreciation of the beautiful Spring flowers along the bike trail this morning. Crab apple blossoms to start your Saturday… and your Earth Day! So go outside… and see something beautiful in nature!

A clouded start to another morning along the lakefront. There was some good sunrise potential… and yet the sun never quite made it through the clouds. As there was a thick layer hovering low on the horizon, and another large band moving in. Some good clouded views & reflections… but we never really got the colorful clouds I was hoping for.

Looks like a yummy evening dinner at Rosene’s…
with juicy ham served on a stamped & soda-fired plate!

And then last night after “stamping”… we continued on to “sprigging.” Kind of the opposite of stamping in a weird sort of way. Basically it’s pressing clay into a textured mold, and then popping out a little “medallion” of clay to score & slip and attach to the bowl. So the sprigs kind of turn into “inverted-stamps” creating a fun texture pattern wherever you choose to place them. All from one little handmade sprig mold… and more fun for my SURFACE DECORATION class last night!

And then after using MY stamps all night… I taught my SURFACE DECORATION class how to make their own! So now that’ll be able to go even further in their own personal stamping journeys!!! Handmade clay stamps for the win!!!