And for those of you who may have noticed my return to the overly “dramatic lighting” in my studio… yes, it’s true… my fluorescent ceiling light is on the fritz again! So whatever it took them two months to fix last time… apparently didn’t work… so for now I’m back in the dark!!!

And by the time the afternoon was over, all of my class demo bowls had been trimmed and are now drying overnight. Another quick set of bowls done… for now.

When I did my bowl demo last Tuesday night, I dented & squished one bowl and said I might add a handle to it… some scoffed… but here it is, stamped, trimmed & handled!!! I think it make a sweet little basket.

So while it snowed this afternoon, I was trimming…
and using my favorite Bison Trimming Tool to make the perfect spiral ribbons of clay!

After Tuesday’s “not-so-basic-bowls” class demo… I felt that the bowls might “need” just a little more embellishment. A little stamping here. A little finessing there. Cause after all… MORE IS MORE. So here are some quick pics of the bowls… and the stamps that did all of the magic!

So for now they’re back under plastic for another night…
back tomorrow to trim the bottoms!

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So my THROWDOWN students had about 90 minutes to extrude their clay and assemble two matching mugs. Seems like a long time… except it took quite awhile for everyone to get through the extruding process as we only have two extruders.  Also keep in mind that the clay was a little bit wetter & squishier than we may have wanted… so many of them were struggling with gooey clay as well.

Claire kept her hexagon tubes intact and added thin handles to her mugs… although we discussed my concern that her handles might be a little too thin to support the weight of her mugs if filled with coffee?!

Jon extruded his tubes and then “fudged” with them to make them more organic, smoothed, concaved and sweeping. Unfortunately… he forgot that “mugs” need handles!!!

Dave extruded slabs and handbuilt these pentagonal mugs with a matching geometric-shaped handle.

Molly added handles and little round feet to her square mugs.

Ryan combined a trio of tubes all sharing one central “container” vessel area. That way you can lift the “mug” with any of the tubes, and drink out of another one! Clever idea… although I’m not too sure it will work?

Donna extruded thin tubes, and then stacked them to be her mug walls!

Tatiana added trees & branches to her mugs… complete with twig-branch handles!

And then we got down to our TOP TWO winners…

Theresa who went very clean & simple, perfectly matching… with beautifully darted and beveled bottoms. Unfortunately, my photos don’t quite show the bottoms as well as I had hoped.

Susan played with her extruded tubes to give them a bit more of an organic feel… complete with leaves, berries and a lady bug!

Oh yeah…
And Taylor‘s entry into the game… as she decided to squish hers up and recycle the clay before I had a chance to get a photo!

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For this week’s LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class,
I decided to introduce my students to one of the most under-rated & frequently forgotten tools at Lillstreet… THE EXTRUDER! So after a quick demo on how to actually assemble and use the extruder.. they were challenged to make two matching mugs with the extruder as their primary tool! A bit overwhelming when you’ve never used and extruder… and then see that there are so many options!

And then they started extruding… realizing it wasn’t quite as easy as I had made it look.. and putting all their weight behind it…

And then realizing that teaming-up and working together might be the better plan!

Once they had their parts & pieces extruded, it was time to start assembling their mugs!
Dave with a very measured & precise approach…

Whereas Donna started with one plan of assembling vertical extrusions…

But then changed her technique in mid-stream…

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After missing their last class while I was in Germany, it was so fun to see what they had come up with during my absence. When I had last left them… they had been challenged to throw a new mug shape, a wide bowl, a platter and handbuild a tall vase-cylinder…. under limited time challenge! They were then tasked to decorate a mug, bowl, platter and vase with a similar technique to make them all look like they’re part of the same set. But then we had The Polar Vortex and missed a class… and some of their pieces dried a bit more than they wanted… and we decided that they needed three or four pieces for the competition entries.

Taylor went with a geometric design with a triangular motif in green slip and some textural carvings. We were all laughing at how much fun it would be to bake a pie in the platter… and then serve it with just that one piece cut out to display the green carved triangle!

Jon went with the simplicity of some deeply grooved and burnished B-clay…
and he knows I always LOVE a good spiral!!!

Molly went with two colors of slip and a bunch of fun splatters!

Claire utilized the motion & movement of a swoosh of slip, and then accentuated it with some wonderful carving through the slip.

Dave went with porcelain clay and then did some dramatic black slip “squirting” & slip trailing… but it is the novelty of the drips going upwards that kinda won us all over!

Theresa went geometric with a repeating pattern on her pieces, with a contrasting slip center.

Tatiana used a combination of stamps & rollers to create her amazing textures & patterns. I can’t wait to see how she glazes these to accentuate the details.

Ryan worked with a off-centered ombre effect with colored slip and then carved a sweeping pattern through all of his pieces.

Susan did a combination of slip painting & slip trailing on her pieces.

And we discussed how a couple of them may have missed an opportunity by NOT decorating the interiors of their low bowls & platters. Unfortunately, the beautiful slip decorating is on the underside and not easily seen. I think a bit of the decoration on the inside would have helped… but maybe that’s just me!?

So then we got down to or TOP TWO WINNERS!!!

Donna is primarily a handbuilder, so I LOVE the fact that she’s doing so well even with her wheelthrown pieces!! Plus, she’s was one of the few who decorated all FOUR of her pieces. Donna went with a wonderful “woodgrain” carving pattern for her pieces…. complete with knots in the wood.

Jacob killed it once again with some whimsical carvings! He put a layer of black slip on his pieces and then carved through with his new favorite tool… the DiamondCore V-Tip Carving Tool.

Sadly… Patti couldn’t make it to class this week. But her pieces were put out for inclusion in our judging. Unfortunately, Patti only had two of her pieces completed. But they were STUNNING sgraffito work… all done with just ONE the tiniest of sgrafitto tools!

And then a day late, and a dollar short… the third and final piece of Patti’s set.
And another stunning sgraffito project. Too bad she missed the deadline!!!

So that’s it for our Fourth Week of the Lillstreet Throwdown class. I have a great group of students again this year… and they’re definitely off to an AMAZING start!!!

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So nice to finally see the sun today. Even better to see a beautiful sunset…
and seeing that it is staying lighter a little bit later every day!!!

After posting a photo last night about my Bowl Demo…. the one where Stacey challenged me to do a triple split rim which people quickly referred to as “the churros bowl”… look who started following me on INSTAGRAM. Ha!!!

A quick refresher… here’s “the churros bowl” again…