And we’re just a couple days away from the NORTHERN ILLINOIS POTTERY TOUR! Make sure you’ve marked your calendar, rallied your pottery buddies & stocked-up on some roadtrip snacks!!! Make a full day of it visiting all six stops with 34 potters along the way! I will once again be at the Sandwich location… Stop #5. C’mon by…

For more information… www.northernilpotterytour.com

Not a bad day at the art fair today! It’s always nice to win a prize ribbon… and sell a bunch of pots at the same time! Were there again tomorrow from 10:00am-5:00pm at the SCHAUMBURG PRAIRIE ARTS FESTIVAL. Be sure to stop by… my now “award-winning” booth to say “Hi” tomorrow! Ha!!!

Healthy greens in stamped greens! Thanks to my friend Sarah for making this yummy salad last weekend… and serving it in one of my glazed serving bowls. Ever notice how handmade pottery can even make “healthy” food look better?! HA!!!

Just stamping another large dinner plate… all with one handmade clay stamp!

Just doing a little stamping here on some little oval vases!
All with my own handmade stamps pressed in one by one… by one… by one…

This week in my SURFACE DECORATION class, we tackled stamping & sprigging. I showed them the basics of how I approach a pot, how try emphasize the shape & geometry of the pot with my stamps… and the most important part… how to stamp! Sure, not rocket-science, but there are a few tricks!!! I did my demos and then set them loose… with their own stamps they had made the week before, as well as some of my collection. Many of them had made their “homework” pieces to work on, but I was glad I had a made a bunch too so they had more to “play” with! I tried to emphasize how stamping can become addictive… and they heard the mantra more than once…

MORE IS MORE!!!

It’s another Floral Friday… this time with an oval vase full of orange tulips gracefully cascading to the side. I love how oval vases allow the flowers to spread more side-to-side… and not always so vertical like in normal vases. A little stamping… a little soda-firing… and a little soda flashing on “raw” unglazed B-Clay!!!

Good thing there are “always” more where that come from!
Plenty of mugs for another MUGSHOT MONDAY…
and a LOT happier than Matthew’s broken one!!!

A true harbinger of Spring… a beautiful vase full of orange tulips for another Floral Friday!
Two different varieties of orange tulips to compliment my stamped & soda-fired vase.

Another large stamped platter fresh from the kiln. Loving how this glaze pools & puddles in all the right places… totally accentuating all of the stamped textures along the way!