Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play
Categories: classes, creativity, mugs

This week at our LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class, my students brought back their set of four matching cylinders… now turned into matching mugs! Well kinda. Their week-long challenge was to convert their matching cylinders to matching mugs in terms of construction. And then to decorate them to be a good “matching” set where the cups don’t actually match, but have a great continuity of design that ties them all together. And oh, but wait there’s more… they also had to utilize at least four out of the five patterns… * spirals * stripes * polka dots * plaids * paisley.  With an added contingency that all four cups could NOT be identical in design. Just how I like it…. vaguely specific! And open to a lot of interpretation… as longs as they made their decoration “creative, thoughtful, deliberate & beautiful.”

So here we go… quite a few exciting & creative  entries into this week’s THROWDOWN challenge!

Taylor’s tall mugs with carved details…

Melanie’s “petticoat-inspired” colorful mugs with perfectly matching round handles.

Helen’s short stoneware mugs with carved accents…

Dana’s tall cylinders… whoops, no handles?… with beautifully carved patterns.

Jen’s cuties with carved “diagonal” details…

Molly’s colorful animal-inspired mugs… where each animal is based on one of the patterns!

Stacey went for a more “business” look with patterned ties on each cup!

Jacob went for detailed texture on his set which is destined for the soda kiln…
during the Soda-Firing Workshop I’ll be teaching next month at Lillstreet Art Center.

Coming in at second place, these beautifully layered patterned cups by Tracy.
Carved patterns with layers of underglaze patterns.

And our BIG WINNER this week… Christine with these amazing “cartoon” cups.
AMAZING CREATIVITY!!!… and great craftsmanship. Each cup tells its own story utilizing the designated patterns, as well as some of the actual verbiage from the challenge itself!

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3 Comments

Joyce Anderson

January 27th, 2020

Very proud of my beautiful daughter and her creative talent.

Ruth Ann Moore

January 27th, 2020

So cool! Colorful and comical.
Second favorite are the animal mugs.

Gloria Harris

January 29th, 2020

Christine, I love your mugs! The idea for the characters and then to believe in the concept. Amazing!!

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