My purple shamrocks have really been loving the early morning sun these past few days! They have totally burst out with beautiful pastel flowers dancing above the purple clover leaves!

Apparently the prayer plant I got as a gift at the end of the last pottery session… remember the handmade OREO cookie planter?… is VERY happy these days! It’s growing well in my window and has decided to shoot up a couple teeny-tiny flowers?! Who knew they even did that??? Thanks again Christine!

ANOTHER GLORIOUS DAY IN CHICAGO!
The weather this week has been nothing but perfection! So how can I possibly be expected to stay home & work on my ETSY Shop… when the other option is playing outside on my bike???!

So glad that Chicago is officially “re-opening” tomorrow! From the looks of it… Buckingham Fountain has a little bit of a head-start!!!

As part of my SURFACE DECORATION end-of-class trading game, tonight I put one of these green plates into the game… still in the category of “something stamped.” And as luck would have it, Christine went home with a green stamped plate… and I went home with her stamped mug!!! Go figure!

As part of the final SURFACE DECORATIONS class of the session, we did my favorite “trading-exchanging-stealing” game… with the category of something stamped! Everyone put in a piece they made this session, and then went home with someone else’s!!! I was the lucky winner of this cute mug by Christine! A wonderful memento of our SURFACE DECORATIONS class!

With the NORTHERN ILLINOIS POTTERY TOUR coming soon… just over a week away… I figured it was time to tackle setting up my first ETSY Shop! I’ve been meaning to do it for years… especially over the past year while we were all locked down. But now with a deadline looming… it’s time to get it done! We all know I work best with a deadline!!!

Watch for it to go live early on Friday, June 18th for the three-day pottery tour! I’m not sure how it works, but here’s the link to my page… https://www.etsy.com/shop/FireWhenReadyPottery …although it’s totally empty right now. But I think you could probably tag it, like it or bookmark it somehow for later?!

Just a little snippet of nature’s beauty this morning. Someone down the street is growing this beautiful clematis up their fence. I don’t really have a good spot to grow a clematis in my “city garden”… so I’ll just have to admire other’s!

In anticipation of the morning’s “event” I couldn’t get the Johnny Cash classic song out of my head! They told us we would have a “Ring Of Fire” solar eclipse this morning… which was cool… but the alignment was a bit more like a chomp bite out of a cookie!

Another stop along the NORTHERN ILLINOIS POTTERY TOUR will be in Gardner, Illinois. Hosted by Anne Maraviglia with invited guest artists Roberta Polfus & Hironobu Nishitateno.

Be sure to add this to your calendar for the online kick-off next Friday morning, June 18th with sales & virtual demos all weekend long!

For more details, artist links & demo schedules, visit www.northernilpotterytour.com

Five more ceramic artists will be part of the Burr Ridge studio location of Jean Burnett for the NORTHERN ILLINOIS POTTERY TOUR.

She will be hosting with invited artists Nancy Gorman, Nancy Jana-Kent, Chris Cox & Deana Bada Maloney! This year they will all be participating online… with plans for a live in-person pottery tour next year!

For more info – www.northenrilpotterytour.com