Towards the end of last year, I had become kind of enamored with my new, slightly larger,
textured tiles. Now don’t get me wrong… they’re by no means large. They’re just a smidge
bigger. And I’m still digging ’em… so I had to make more!!!

By the end of the night, I had pretty much covered my entire work table. So I was done.
I put all of my tiles on a plastic grid so they can dry more evenly. It doesn’t always work,
but they seem to dry more evenly, with less warpage, when they have air drying them from
all sides, top & bottom. It’s a little “trick” I learned from friend & tile-maker Mike Skiersch.
It’s a simple “trick” using the plastic grids they put in suspended ceilings to help “hide” the
fluorescent light fixtures. Any hardware store has them… and they’re pretty darn cheap!!!

I stopped by Lillstreet Art Center this evening to drop-off a few things, pick-up a few things,
chat with a few friends, water my studio plants… and see what I’ve been missing as I’ve been
too busy to get much done in the studio lately. Too busy with holiday projects & preparations.
But never too busy to get a wonderful porcelain present from Terry Hogan.

Another wonderfully precise, pierced & patterned porcelain beauty to add to my collection!

Merry Christmas to me… and thank you again Terry!!!

While at the McGraw YMCA tonight hanging out with my friends, I did have to do
a little shopping from “My Talented Friend” Cory McCrory. Her textures, her colors and
her wacky sense of whimsy has always amused me. So when I saw this wonderful cup &
saucer – I knew I had to have it. Sure, it will fit right into my mug collection. But this is
the first one that comes with an actual arm as the stirring stick. Which comes in “handy”
when there’s “no poison” to be had!

But the REAL clincher is when you pick up the cup and find that the bottom is a point?!
So there’s no way to set it down anywhere except for the cloud-lined saucer that fits the point.
Too funny. Too clever. I love it.

And while I was there…
I also “had to” add another one of Cory’s handmade ornaments to my collection!

Fresh from the kiln… more soda-fired textures on the sides of my new slab vases!
All of which will be available at the Holiday Home Show in two weeks!

Tonight was my last chance to make some new pieces for this weekend’s soda kiln.
I have a bisque kiln scheduled for tomorrow… so I’ve got to get these done, slip painted,
dried and ready to go into the kiln quickly. So I decided that some more large textured
slab vases might be a good way to go. And here are some more textures on the slabs…
soon to become textured vases!

So the Lillstreet Member Show opened today… and I was quite happy to find a couple
“treasures” to add to my Terry Hogan Collection. She’s crazy obsessed – and we love her!
She makes these incredible porcelain pieces with intricate designs pressed & pierced
into them. Wonderful patterns with groovy fun textures! And she’s one of the artists who
is consistently under-pricing her work… so I snatched these for a steal. And “then” told her
that she needs to raise her prices. For the time & work, she could easily double her prices!

And as if they weren’t cool enough… here’s some close-ups to show them off even more!

And it’s time to snatch up a bunch of my favorites… GOURDS!!!
Love their colors, their textures and the whimsical twists, turns & animated postures!!!
So much better than their over-rated counterpart the pumpkin! I already had a great
assortment from”art In The Barn.” But you can always have more, right???

Yesterday, at the end of the Apple Cider Century, we rode past a pumpkin farm with tons
of cool gourds. And I found possibly the cutest gourd ever!!! So tiny… it fit perfectly with
a few more in the pocket on the back of my biking jersey!

While packing for the art fair, I took a few minutes to take a few more pictures!
Some more soda fired textures & glazes to post & share… then show off this weekend
at “Art In The Barn” with these patterns on the sides of my textured slab vases!!!

It’s always so exciting to see what happened while the kiln was firing.
You glaze them and imagine one thing… sometimes they work, sometimes
they don’t, and sometimes… it’s just a wonderful surprise!!!