With ART IN THE GARDEN less than a week away, we’re all working quickly to get our collaborations done by this weekend! Looks like Cory is still adding bright colors to her flowers…. making them fun, keeping them whimsical. Love them Cory… can’t wait to see people picking some of your flowers to go in my vases!!!

Just another monochromatic morning. Not much chance for a sunrise this morning… looks like we’re gonna have another gray day!

It’s getting BUGGY around here!!!
Look how cute these little Amy Taylor fireflies are getting!!! You’ll need to come to ART IN THE GARDEN to see them in person… we may just have real fireflies flying around the garden too?!

Looks like a great collaboration plan is coming together… keep it coming Cory!!!

Once the ADORBS characters were applied to the cylinders, Amy & I started painting them with colorful underglazes… making the characters POP even more… and maybe a little more FUN at the same time?!

Lots of collaborations in the works everywhere. All of the ART IN THE GARDEN artists are frantically working to get their collaboration projects done for next weekend’s grassroots art fair in Glenview!

Check out the website to see who’s playing with us this Summer!!!
https://www.grassrootsartfair.com/

So here’s your first sneak peek at Cory McCrory’s textured beauties for ART IN THE GARDEN! Even without her whimsical colors, these handbuilt flowers are looking INCREDIBLE!!! I can’t wait to see them once Cory adds her fun colors & stains! I’m thinking that maybe these flowers are going to need a fun textured wall vase to hold them… oh wait… I “might” know something about that too?!!!

Well THIS can’t be good?!!!

While I was glazing a bunch of class demo pieces, I went to dunk this flower pot into the glaze bucket using the tongs. And when I pulled it back out, I saw THIS!!! Sure, flower pots should have some good drainage holes, but this is ridiculous. I guess the area where the stamped impressions are was a bit too thin for the pressure of the tongs lifting the pot out of the bucket?!

Shoulda stayed away from that part apparently… well, maybe next time?!

So while I was soda-firing all day yesterday, I also took some time to clean-off my teacher shelves, do a little wipe-down & tackle the piles of bisque! My students all know that glazing is my least favorite part of the process… so my class demo pieces tend to pile up. Sometimes for several sessions! So yesterday I finally glazed everything (except for the platters… let’s not get crazy!) while I was there firing.

Sure, I might not have been too “creative” with my glaze choices… but at least they’ll be done! And making room for NEW demo pots when we start the class session in a week!

So my soda firing went quite smoothly yesterday. I started early in the morning, body reduction early on… then glaze reduction later as I put the soda mixture into the kiln. You’ve gotta LOVE when the flames come shooting out every crack in between the bricks! So exciting. So mesmerizing!!!

Okay, so it turned out to be a late night Friday, but I finally got the soda kiln all loaded & the door bricked up for the night. Then it was home for a quick sleep… so I could return early yesterday morning to start the firing!