We all scream for ice cream!
After scooping up some great pottery at Northern Clay Center, we decided to scoop up some sweet snacks at the local ice cream parlor! A wonderfully sweet stop on our tour. Sarah decided to go for a Dreamsicle Float!

And Pam was enjoying her Raspberry Chocolate Chip sundae.

While I went for Chocolate Cinnamon Pretzel ice cream… with a LOT of hot fudge!!!

So I made it up to Minneapolis… for a really quick get-away with friends!
And a new furry friend named Roscoe!!!

Yes, I’m up in Minneapolis visiting my friends Sarah Chapman & Julie Wight. You know… Sarah who’s been making fantastic holiday ornaments every month this year as part of the Holiday Ornament Challenge!!! And then our mutual friend Pam Robinson is in town for a conference planning meeting, so figured we should all meet up for a day of fun! Anyway, we decided to throw together a quick get-away adventure for me… a great excuse to celebrate my birthday & Julie’s birthday too!!! Anyway, when I got there, I got to meet the new puppy – Roscoe. Adorable!!!

Then we took the party outside where we played with potter Emily Murphy and her cutey-patootie daughter Ada. Although Roscoe was more interested in the dried leaves… and the pet bunnies in the cage next door!

After some fun in the yard, we decided we should go out and play around town in Minneapolis. Unfortunately, Julie had to stay behind to do some studying… and to watch little Roscoe!!!

Ahhh…. a girl and her dog.. Adorable. Both of them.

Today was the Harmon Hundred… another 100-mile Century bike ride.
And it was especially fun to ride part of the journey with my friend Pammy, her husband Jeff and their friend Dawn. It was each of their first Century rides. After years of riding Centuries, I must admit that I had kind of forgotten how tough it is for “Century virgins.” But they were troopers and finished the ride… still with smiles on their faces! Congrats Pam & Dawn!!!

What a great surprise to find an adorable little girl, some beautiful flowers and one of my textured slab vases popping up on my Facebook page today?! Thanks Kelly for sharing… and thanks to an adorable Rosie for posing! You both make my vase look better!!!

From my friend Kelly on Facebook…
My favorite Baby Feeder mug….and Ryann’s too!

And she should know… Ryann is baby number ten!!!

Last night I hung out with some friends at Lillstreet Art Center before making it upstairs to my studio. Such a fun distraction to have the classrooms downstairs with a lot of great fun & art going on down there. Last night my friend Terry Hogan was once again working on her incredibly intricate pierced porcelain creations. Up until recently, they’ve been on the smaller size. But lately she’s been expanding (literally) and going for some larger, sculptural pieces. Still with that crazy perfection & attention-to-detail.

And how does she do it one might ask? Well, with a crazy amount of creativity & patience!!! But also a pretty cool pile of tools for poking, piercing, pricking and pointilism-ing!

So when Kristen came into the studio last weekend with her adorable son AJ,
she wanted to buy a new mug. So she “shopped” off my studio shelves while
AJ was making his ornaments. And when she had found just the right one…
I wrapped it up and it was a sudden & surprise birthday present for Kristen!!!

Hope you like your new mug Kristen… and that you have a wonderful birthday today!

When faced with a roof full of empty bowls at Lillstreet’s “Empty Bowls Project”…
how do you choose? It’s especially tough when there are already far too many bowls
in my life. Most of them my own. Do I really need another one?! And the answer is
“of course I do.” Especially when you see one that catches your eye… and it’s made
by a friend! So here’s my new empty bowl…

I was pretty sure that it was made by Jay Strommen… remember?… the guy I posted
about a week ago? The one with the really cool wall pieces at the Bridgeport Art Center?!
If you missed that blog post, click here.

All of the clues pointed towards Jay and his partner Gina. The clay looks like Jay’s…
dark brown, gritty, chunky, with a ton of particles in it. The tea bowl shape looks very
Jay-like as well. The stamped “chop” signature looked familiar, but I wasn’t sure.

The clincher was the word LUNAR painted on the bottom in white slip. I remembered
that Gina’s company is “Lunar Media.” it all seemed too coincidental. But I went with
my gut picked this one… knowing that it just had to be from Jay & Gina.

And it was. I contacted Gina and she confirmed that it is indeed a Jay Strommen
original. Jay actually referred to it as one of their “lunar lovelies.” And I agree.
I liked it because it was beautiful… I love it even more now that I know
a friend made it!!!

So imagine my surprise…
I was working at the “glitter gig” today and we went to the Bridgeport Art Center
to meet a client and do a little pre-site visit for an upcoming event. We were looking
around this really wonderful lofty event space. We happened to pass the washrooms
and I saw these wonderful art installations on the entrance walls. It looked familiar.
And you know how I love grids… multiples of items… and geometric repetition!

Well, these 50 pieces are basically square plates, with square “legs” on both sides.
I believe they were stacked on each other during the firing. And curved so that the
beautiful glassy-glaze build-up can pool in the center of each plate. Stunning.

We continued walking around the event space, and then I ducked through a side door.
Suddenly I was in a small art gallery. And there were more really cool art pieces on the
walls. And then I realized… these were all made by a friend of mine Jay Strommen.

I had run into him last at SOFA Chicago back in November. We were talking and catching
up with stories about people we know from his time teaching at Lillstreet. We then got on
the topic of his current artworks. Let me just say, Jay is very much an “artist.” He lives
the part… and makes me feel so much like a “craftsman” not an artist. A lot of the “art-speak”
he gives goes right over my head. But it’s fun to hear him talking about what he’s doing…
so passionate, so eloquent, so engaging… and still quite funny!

So he then proceeds to tell us that his new work is basically “deconstructing” the entire
ceramic process. Without going into all of the details I don’t quite understand, he’s basically
putting a bunch of clay chemicals, glaze chemicals & other components on a “kiln shelf”
and then melting it all together in a high-fire wood kiln. Of course there’s some very erudite
thoughts behind it, some artistic jargon, some special blah-blah-blah… and I was scared.
Then he tells us that he’s showing at SOFA and that we should go see his work. I was kinda
concerned after all the hype that it was going to be more than a bit crazy. Imagine my
surprise when we got to the booth and his pieces were there hanging on the wall.
And they were incredibly cool!!!

Long story short…
Jay Strommen currently has an exhibit going in the Bridgeport Art Center Gallery.
And since I know that so many of you won’t wander through that same side door I did
today, I thought I would share some pictures of his show!

Now obviously these aren’t all “kiln shelves” that he’s firing onto. They’re actually slabs
of clay that he’s building. But I’m pretty sure that the basic “deconstructed” ceramics
process fired on a kiln shelf principle is still at work here!

And yes, that’s a cone melted onto the surface there… the white hook shaped thing!

If you’re in the Chicago area, be sure to stop by the Bridgeport Art Center to see Jay’s
show. You can also check out Jay’s beautiful website for some images, videos and a lot
of Jayzo’s art speak! Click here to go to Jay’s website… www.JayStrommen.com

Special thanks to everyone who came over this past Saturday for “Mud & Metal.”
It’s always fun to see so many friends, family, groupies & Facebook Fans all in one place!!
And thanks to Amy Taylor for sharing the day and her incredible work with us too!!!