Tonight I swung by FALL INTO DAMEN AT NIGHT near the studio to see two of my beginning pottery students who were participating in the event! Robert makes these great candles with witty names, metal containers & great fragrance combinations! After smelling almost all of them… I ended up coming home with a “Spruce Wayne”. Can’t wait to light it up!

Check out Robert’s soy candles on Instagram : @rapwaxcandles
… or click here for the website!

With the sudden cold-spell coming through, plus a threat of frost in the next day or so… I thought it was time to take some cuttings from my coleus plants to start propagating for next year! Okay, so I might have gotten a little carried away… but once I started cutting I just couldn’t stop myself!

More is more… even with plants!

Remember a few days ago when I posted about the cool cement carvings along the lakefront?… well, apparently this is “a thing” here in Chicago…. who knew?! Thanks to Matthew for letting me know about this history of carved cement art along the lakefront in Chicago.

For more details… click here for the article & photos!

Well, it was bound to happen.. another batch of textured picture frames as part of another upcoming collaboration with painter Mary Foster. We first introduced these collaboration pieces at ART IN THE GARDEN this summer… and kinda figured we should do it again for THE COZY COTTAGE POP-UP in November. She’s already got a head-start on her paintings… so I felt as though I had better get my act together too!

A little pop of Fall color on the bushes…
as the leaves are just starting to change colors!

A beautiful salad… made prettier with just a hint of the handmade stamped bowl holding it all together! Make your meals more attractive with handmade pottery!!!

My studio neighbor Karen Patinkin has been working on cleaning up her studio lately, and has gathered this wonderful collection of test tiles. I’m loving all of her slip trailings & glaze combinations on these porcelain shards… and I’m sensing perhaps a really cool mosaic piece in the making?!

Just another quick class demo… showing them how to throw a bit taller, get the clay to move up off of the bottom… and how to get some even wall thickness. Unfortunately, sometimes you gotta cut a few pots to show your students what you’re talking about!

Looks like my pal Mary Foster is back making some more mini-paintings… now if only there was “someone” who could make some creative picture frames to go with them?… maybe out of clay?… maybe another collaboration?… hmmm, just thinking out loud…

Looks like this little green oval vase made it safely to it’s new forever-home! And it looks happy… along with that beautiful table-top surface that I’m totally intrigued by?!!!