It’s catalpa tree flowering season!!! Crazy-cool flowers that look like orchid clusters perched amongst large green leaves. Beautiful now… but soon enough they start “raining” down onto the ground. Fun to watch them fall… but not so fun a couple days later when they start to decompose into a gooey brown mess!!! So… enjoy them now while you still can!!!

And sometimes… a bigger sky show needs a bigger photo!

A beautiful morning along the lake with plenty of clouds for some added sunrise drama. An ever-changing sky show as I pedaled along this morning. Lots to see. Lots of fun!!!

Yesterday we had a great adventure… kind of a SAFARI ADVENTURE!!!

My cousin Kim, niece Taylor & my sister Jen and I went to a drive-through animal “safari” park in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. You drive through the park with animals all around… coming right up to the car for a snack… and INTO the car for even more snacks!!! They give you the animal feed when you enter… and it’s obvious the animals know the drill. At times it almost felt like one would block the car so the others could come up to the windows!!! Too much fun… and great to see these animals so close-up & wandering free. As “we” were the ones in the “cage” of our car!!!

Soda kiln firing… before & after. Side-by-side comparison of the magic
that happens in the soda kiln as the pyrometric cones melt and reach cone 10.

I also did a demo for my campers yesterday while they were trimming… about how much fun carving can be. Especially when I’m letting them borrow some of my DiamondCore Tools!!! Just a fun little demo cup with “fireworks” all over the sides!!!

As part of my slip painting demos for summer camp today… I introduced the kids to skip trailing. Going one step further with slip trailed flowers… “dragged” for texture… and drawn on the canvas table as that’s just where we were sitting!!! It’s just clay… it washed right away!!!

Lots of fun & lots of pots!!! With pre-teens in the morning & teenagers in the afternoon, my week was filled with Wheelthrowing Summer Camp at Lillstreet Art Center. So much work, such determination & such creativity. In just five days, they threw a lot of pots, trimmed bottoms, made attachments & painted everything with colored slip! Soon enough they will be bisque fired, clear glazed & fired again. Then the campers will return to claim their treasures… and hopefully treasure their memories of camp!!! So much fun… and luckily, I have several more weeks of camp still to come!!! We’ve only just begun!!!

Week One of Summer Camp done. And eventful it was!!! We started the week with no air conditioning… sweltering during the hottest days of the heatwave! They moved us to a different classroom that was not quite as intolerable… and gave use a “swamp cooler.” Yep, I didn’t know either… a 5-gallon bucket of ice in front of a fan!!! Wait, what?! We made it through the day with only one camper passing out… but who’s counting? The rest of the week was warm… as we got moved back into our original “UN-air-conditioned“ room. Sweaty & clammy pretty much all day long!!!

But then today… THIS happened! They got a NEW air conditioning unit on the roof!l… YAY!!! Although I didn’t really expect them to open the ceiling completely… DURING camp!!! But they did. Very quickly… just a shower of dust… a new sky view… and then we had air conditioning again!!! Voila’!!!

Quick fix and the room got chilly as the old unit was lowered down from a crane
just outside our classroom window! Like I said… eventful.

Luckily, the new air conditioning unit should make the rest of Summer Camp
so much more enjoyable in there!!!

Meanwhile… looking back over my shoulder there was some drama brewing behind me.
It didn’t look like much in terms of weather… just some great colors, clouds & contrast.