As the LILLSTREET THROWDOWN came to an end last night, my class surprised me with a sweet Thank You card & gift. And for the record… the gift was indeed SWEET… from Big Fat Cookie in Chicago!!! I must admit, this group was a pleasure to teach… always so eager to play along with my crazy pottery games & challenges! They truly rocked it out this session… Thank You to each and every one of them!

For my THROWDOWN “Decorating With An Oreo” Challenge… there wasn’t a time deadline. So I decided to challenge them back. I had until one of them could successfully “Face The Cookie” to complete my bowl decoration. Yes, you know the game… put a cookie on your forehead, and then wriggle, scrunch & squirm until you can get the cookie into your mouth with no hands! I had plenty of time, and a few good laughs, until Dana finally got the cookie off her face and into her mouth!!! Fun for all.

Towards the end of our final LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class, there was a twist!!! My students had “ganged up on me” and created their own set of challenges & contests for ME!!!… you know how I love a good twist & a good challenge!!!

Starting with blindly weighing clay, and then throwing two pots. You can see that I didn’t do so well on the blind “guessing” of weight. The ball on the bottom was my guess… everything on top of it is how far off I was!!!

First up was the throwing tall challenge… where I had to throw a cylinder over 12-inches tall with the five-pound ball of clay.

When I got the cylinder to the necessary 12-inch height… I decided to cut it in half right there in front of my students to see how even my walls were. I didn’t have a wire tool handy… so I just used the side of the ruler to cut with!

My next challenge was the three-pound ball to throw a bowl… oh yeah, blindfolded!!! I kinda knew that this challenge I did to them would somehow come back to bite me!

Since I had a little extra time left to my challenge, I decide to “show-off” just a little… and try a split rim pinched back together which is one of my standard bowl demo tricks. The split rim worked okay, but the pinching was a bit harder to do while still blindfolded!

And then I had to decorate my bowl with just one tool…
and their choice of tool???… another challenge I had thrown on them earlier in the season… coming back to bite me yet again!

And quite fittingly, for my single decorating tool… an single OREO!!!
So I started by blending my split-rim back together. And then started texturing the rim, and then adding curved lines in the interior!

So much fun! You know how I LOVE a good challenge. And the fact that my students came together and planned this whole “game” in advance… so touching & impressive. All the way down to typing out the challenge instructions & placing them in envelopes for the Big Reveal!

Just when they thought they were done…
as a fun little challenge for my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class, I decided to divide them into teams of two for a little clay game. Kinda like PICTIONARY… but with clay instead of paper & pencils. Hysterical to watch this play out… as we were adding a few extra points that I was hoping would break a tie in the class standings.

Any idea what these two “insta-clay-drawings” might be?…

Lillstreet Art Center.
See the pot inside the building? Too funny!

So we had a table full of building blocks… and what better to do with them than to SURPRISE Molly & Jacob with a little Baby Shower and a bunch of blocks for the baby-to-be! Everyone in the class was in on the surprise… well, except for Jacob & Molly. They were surprised when we “revealed” the blocks, said they were all for them… and then made them judge the winners!

And for those who may remember… a year ago we were “celebrating” the final night of our LILLSTREET THROWDOWN Season Two by making extruded vases for Jacob & Molly’s wedding!

Time flies. Memories made.

After building cubes in class last week, my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN students were challenged to turn them into “traditional” building blocks. One side of the block had to feature a letter they chose randomly “from-a-hat” & another side had to be a sgraffito-carved animal that starts with the same letter. The remaining sides had to be carved, slip trailed and decorated with the theme!

Dana’s set of building blocks…
L is for LION. T is for TIGER. O is for OTTER. Y is for YAK.

Donna’s set of building blocks…
Z is for ZEBRA. D is for DACHSHUND. N is for NIGHTCRAWLER. P is for PIG.

Taylor’s set of building blocks… not quite so colorful, not quite so done yet…

Melanie’s set of building blocks… unfortunately, not quite done yet…

Helen’s set of building blocks…
E is for ELK. V is for VOLE. A is for Aardvark. W is for WOLF.

Christine’s set of building blocks…
S is for SHEEP. C is for CRAB. A is for ALLIGATOR. H is for HORSE.

Tracy’s set of building blocks…
U is for URCHIN. Q is for QUETZAL BIRD. W is for WHALE. X ids for X-RAY FISH???

With the end of the LILLSTREET THROWDOWN bearing down on us, I had to get started on a “little project” of my own a couple weeks ago! Getting ready for the final night when the Big Winner would be revealed!!!

So tonight was the last class of the 10-week session for my Tuesday night wheelthrowing students… and we like to celebrate with a potluck & a little White Elephant trading-picking-stealing kinda game. This session we all put in a mug… and I care home with beauty made by Shannon! Oddly enough, at the end of the game… she went home with my mug!!! Cup karma.

Celebrating TEXTURE TUESDAY with a little stamped texture around the rim of this platter. Stamp by stamp. One by one… by one… by one!!!

Celebrating another MUGSHOT MONDAY with a stamped & amber glazed mug… where I’m lovin’ how the glaze is pooling & breaking in all the right places to highlight the stamping & throwing lines.