So today was another day “playing” down on the Chicago lakefront! Another CHICAGO TRIATHLON under my belt. I went once again for the full International distance… basically a one mile swim in Lake Michigan, followed by twenty-five miles of biking on Lake Shore Drive & Lower Wacker Drive & ending with a six mile run along the lakefront south to 31st Street Beach and back through the Museum Campus towards the Finish Line near the Art Institute.

It was a fun day overall. I felt pretty confident & strong… even though the conditions were less than ideal. The second half of the swim was so choppy it felt like a washing machine! Riding south on Lake Shore Drive all directly into the headwind. And the run was very sunny & humid… so excited to make it to the Finish Line!!!

Batch number two DONE!… and DRYING!!!
Again, I need to make sure they’re completely dry before they go into a bisque kiln. To help speed that along, I’m drying them on an elevated plastic grid so that they can get some air exposure from the bottom too!

So my second batch of pumpkins is coming along nicely… stems, warts, colored flashing slip. Check, check & check!

Looks like the uber-talented Mary Foster has a great start on some new mini paintings for ART IN THE GARDEN… now if only they had some great ceramic frames to go with them?! Oh wait… sounds like another collaboration in the making?! I think there’s a “pretty good chance” you might see the final collaborations in two weeks at ART IN THE GARDEN. Just a hunch…

So apparently this is what happens when you go into the studio early in the morning… and have that nagging feeling that you might not have enough pieces to fill next weekend’s soda kiln?! And you have a little panic… and start throwing MORE!!!

It’s gonna be tough to get these all stamped, trimmed, dried, bisqued & glazed before going into my soda kiln next weekend!

Uh oh… tick-tock, tick-tock…

So in the creative world of collaboration projects… I gave these tiny stamped & soda-fired “cutie-patooties” to metalsmith extraordinaire Amy Taylor a little while back… with the anticipation that she’ll do something really cool with them!!! I have a clue… but can’t wait to see them in-person at ART IN THE GARDEN on September 10th & 11th in Glenview!

While making a bunch of “realistic” pumpkins for the soda kiln, I decided to make a few of the “ghouls collection” jack-o’lanterns for the soda kiln too! I’ve made these little pumpkins for years with terra cotta & underglaze. But this will be my first batch going into the soda kiln… fingers crossed that they’re as cute as the originals!

Another clouded morning with some pretty gusty winds blowing in from the north. A dark & gloomy morning with very little chance for a sunrise… but luckily we got some blue skies peeking through at the end of my ride!

Okay, so I must say that I’ve been kind of enamored by that first batch of pumpkins… so why not try to crank out another batch in time for my soda firing?! So here we go again… another batch, even more this time & slightly smaller. I mean, you gotta have all different sized pumpkins, right?

Working on some collaboration parts & pieces… textured of course! Working on a few “things” I can share with my pal Cory McCrory as part of our collaboration project for ART IN THE GARDEN!!! Gotta love a good “teaser” photo…