Pi Kappa Alpha Mother's Day Auction

Next weekend we are off to California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo, to see Austin and attend his fraternity's Mother's Day Dinner. Every May the PIKE fraternity throws a dinner party for us moms and holds a silent auction to raise money. Families are asked to donate an item to the auction. This will be the second year I bring a mosaic, which for some reason doesn't do as well as the sports tickets, or the lifetime supply of golf balls. Those manly items that speak to all the fraternal testosterone in the room. No doubt, it will be the second year I buy my own piece back--well, I might as well buy something I like. Fortunately, I've gotten smarter this year. I'm making something much less time consuming: The old standard Italian terra-cotta pot from Home Depot.

A few brightly colored tiles, glazed and ready

for firing in the kiln.

Twenty-four hours later, out of the oven, fresh baked: Calla lillies. Some of the larger flowers I've made for the 3-D mural I'm working on in the atrium. (This photo looks fancy because it's for the studio blog... )

and these little gems.

The pot perks up a bit after a glaze is put on the rim, and it too is fired in the kiln.

Then the fun part begins. I put on the tiles and fill in with little bits and pieces of colorful tesserae.

And when I'm finished gluing everything on in a couple of hours...

Tomorrow is grout day, and I'm off to the nursery to buy some pretties to plant inside.

And no Mom, you can't bid on it because I can't mail a potted plant with flowers to Colorado. Not your colors anyway.