Did a little throwing on the wheel this evening after a full day of Wheelthrowing Camp with the kids! Had to get my parts & pieces started for some upcoming collaborations… I’ve got some major catching up to do! Been a little busy with the kids…

Early this morning, we had just a single line of clouds flying low along the horizon. My sunrise bike ride was hot & steamy again… a precursor to this evening’s storms?! I had no idea they were headed our way… as I left all of my windows wide open at home all day!!!

Whoops… had a bit of mopping up to do when I got home after teaching class tonight.

And while we’ve been focused on my back porch today… I also have this tile installation back there. A bunch of glazed tiles hanging on a bunch of single nails. Always fun to swipe a hand across to make them all swing & swivel.

Sure, my purple hyacinth bean vines have nice flowers & seed pods. But the also have great leaves with some very striking veining. Perfect for another “natural” Texture Tuesday!

You’ve seen snippets of my little back porch from the other side… but here’s the “front” side as seen from my kitchen window. Sure, I might have a bit of a rusty metal addiction… but the climbing purple hyacinth bean vine sure seems to be happy with it. Loving the colors & textures of the coleus plants… and a little bit of a gourd plant working its way through!

I always love a good studio process shot… like these sweet cups coming along in Cory McCrory’s studio! Looks like they now have bottoms… moving along nicely for our collaboration project!

So then THIS happened.

For some reason, it has been overly difficult biking for the past few months. Just harder to pedal than normal. Kind of a dragging feeling. I just wrote it off to covid weight gain, laying on my sofa for the past year, or maybe just a bit of apathy?! But as we got further into our biking season, I was still dragging behind everyone else?! Finally on a recent ride, my friend Chris noticed that my back wheel was out of true. Wobbling as I ride. I took my bike into the shop to get a cleaning & a simple wheel alignment… and the shop mechanic found THIS!!! I had actually broken a spoke out through the wheel. Ouch!!! Nothing fix-able… so I had to buy a whole new wheel!

Luckily, my bike is rolling along much smoother & faster these days!!! WHEW!!! Glad it wasn’t just me…

When new clay meets “graveyard” reclaimed clay during Summer Camp!!! So my wheelthrowing campers “recycle” their bad & shmooshed pots by slightly drying them out on plaster bats and then wedging them back together with some new clay! Looks like it might be another Marbled Monday!

So here they are… sweet textured cups by my pal Cory McCrory. Getting one step closer to our collaboration coming together for ART IN THE GARDEN!

So it looks like my pottery pal & “collaboration cohort in crime” Cory McCrory has been working in her studio making some parts & pieces for our ART IN THE GARDEN collaboration project. I love her handbuilt pieces with wonderful textures & whimsy!

Can’t wait to see how these pieces come together… and now I guess I need to start making MY part of the collaboration too, huh?!