Well we’re nearing the end of the Second Annual LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class.
So for this week’s in-class challenge, we re-visited a few of our previous challenges with a twist. We divided into two teams and had everyone decide which of six challenges each team player was going to tackle. Twist was… they didn’t know what challenge each was! After they all signed up for their challenge “number”… we rolled the dice to randomly assign project challenges to each number! So they all started working on their assigned challenge… so all six challenges were going on simultaneously.

But after 15 minutes… the timer went OFF!!!    Wait?… what?!!!!

After the first fifteen minutes they all found out that they had to ROTATE to continue working on someone else’s project. Yes, they were going to switch & rotate every 15 minutes for four rotations to finish each challenge. So they needed to work as a team, share information at every rotation, and keep everything on pace so as to finish ALL six challenge projects in the one hour time frame.

Everyone was so focused… and it was surprisingly quiet...
except for the crazy commotion & confusion during rotations!!!

And because one of our students was “out sick” for the night… I had to draft one of my Tuesday night students to fill in to keep the teams even. Thanks to Katie for stepping up and joining in our crazy fun!!!

At the end of the hour… and four complete rotations… we had a table full of projects!
Lots of “matching” challenges… some successful, some not so much…

So here they are side-by-side…  one team versus another!

FOUR MATCHING CYLINDERS

TWO MATCHING EXTRUDED MUGS

TWO MATCHING SERVING BOWLS

TWO MATCHING PLATTER

TWO MATCHING SPHERES

whoops… and the “other” side…

And the other team’s winning spheres…

TWO MATCHING 5-inch CUBES

Pretty hard to judge… especially when you see all four all lined up…

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But they still need to be fired & glazed before adding BERRIES!!!

This past week my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN students rocked my word!!!
They were challenged to make Salt & Pepper Shakers… with a theme!
THE BEATLES.

I gave them a list of some of the most popular Beatles songs.
And then the TOP TWO winners of the first in-class challenge got to choose their own song title. The the second TOP TWO winners from the second in-class challenge got to “assign” the rest of the themes to everyone else in class! So they left class with a classic Beatles song on which they had to base their salt & pepper shaker set on… with a thematic tray to hold them all together.

So how well do YOU know your Beatles Songs? See if you can figure these out…

CLAIRE

JON

TERESA

DAVID

But I especially loved how the holes “unintentionally” lined-up to become eyes!!!

RYAN

SUSAN

TAYLOR

JACOB

MOLLY

And our TOP TWO WINNERS for the week…

DONNA

TATIANA

So there they are… a bunch of AMAZING salt & pepper shakers!!!
They definitely stepped up to the challenge!!!

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Need a few answers to the Beatles Trivia S&P Challenge???

CLAIRE -         Blackbird
JON -                Rocky Raccoon
TERESA -         I Am The Walrus
DAVID -           While My Guitar Gently Weeps
RYAN -             Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band
SUSAN -           Yellow Submarine
TAYLOR -        Across The Universe
JACOB -           Norwegian Wood
MOLLY -          Octopus’s Garden
DONNA -         Strawberry Fields
TATIANA -      Paperback Writer

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A bowl is just a bowl… until it gets HOLES.. . and becomes a Berry Bowl.
So I start with my MKM Decorating Disk to help divide the spacing evenly.
I stick my needle tool through the holes on the disk to mark the bottom of the bowl.

And then I pull out the POWER TOOLS!!!
A power drill makes the holes so much faster & cleaner than trying to punch them out by hand. And having a few different sizes of drill bits on hand helps with the design.

Plus… I’m hoping that the clay shrinkage will help close up those big holes…
don’t want to lose any blueberries!

And then after drilling all of the holes, there’s a just a little bot of clean-up om the inside.
These little burrs are very easy to wipe off with my fingers…
but look how clean those holes are!!!

And then

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Always fun to see one of my mugs “pop-up” in someone else’s Instagram Story… with just a hint of green to help celebrate the day! Thanks Allison – you’re Irish Soda Bread looks YUMMY!!!

With a little shamrock greenery on my living room window sill.

Lotsa bowls… LOTSA trimming!!!
Good thing I love trimming… almost as much as I love stamping!

Spent a lot of time stamping… and stamping… and stamping. Adding some texture to my latest batch of bowls… soon to have HOLES. As these will quickly be turning into berry bowls!

Sometimes it’s too easy… or too tempting… when it’s Pi(e)Day and you’re at the studio… knowing that the First Slice Pie Café is right downstairs… and they’re offering special deals when you buy TWO slices of pie. So how could I not participate in the celebration? Tough choices… but I ended up with Cherry and Peach-Blueberry.

Celebrating Pi(e) Day by wearing this sweet little necklace by my talented metalsmith friend Amy Taylor. I love having talented friends… especially when they know you THIS well.
Sweet treats!!!