Just fidgeting & playing with some little textured squares. Not 100% sure of what I’m doing here… but I think I feel a little bit of a plan coming together. Hopefully in time for the “4×4 Sculpture Show” I’m doing the first weekend of March in Evanston. More details to come… if this plan actually comes together?!

Score, slip, attach, repeat… repeat… repeat. Mug handles all attached & ready to start drying slowly! Just in time to make it downstairs to teach class tonight! The perfect way to celebrate another Mugshot Monday!

Handles pulled & looped over so they can start setting-up. I like to loop them like this so they “dry” a bit with the curve already established before attaching them to the mugs. A little bit of finesse is needed while attaching them later… but most of the handle curve is already there!

Here we go again… another day of adding handles onto mugs! You know mugs are my FAVORITE thing to make… so here we go! Starting with these carrot-shaped nuggets of clay getting ready to pull handles the old-fashioned way!

Looks like Kristy is cooking up something SPICY for dinner… all the spices for a batch of Middle Eastern Lamb Stew! I can almost smell the savoriness from here!!! Thanks for sharing Kristy!

We ended out LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class Thursday night with a table full of envelopes. And you know I love a good game.. so it was a “White Envelope, White Elephant Game” of picking, trading & stealing! Once they picked an envelope, they opened it to see their clue… but there was a lot of “stealing” going on. Inside the envelopes were categories for their upcoming “Big Build” project challenge.

After they each had their chosen clue…
it was time to reveal their “Big Build”… which was…

C’mon… you don’t think I would reveal it quite so quickly, right?!

There were a couple people missing from class, so once they get their “assignments”… then it’s time to share more details about their very challenging project.

But only when the “time” is right!!!

The fifth challenge this week for my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN students was to roll the longest coil possible with one & a half pounds of clay. Same rules apply… if a piece breaks off, you can continue to roll the longer piece, but they could not squish it back on! Congrats to to Katie, Aaron & Claire who rolled their coils longer than the table… and had to make the bend!

After a couple handbuilding challenges, it was time for my THROWDOWN class to get back on the wheel. This time it was “tallest” wheelthrown cylinder with two pounds of clay! With a nice even rim… no pinching, stretching or adding onto the top to make it taller! Congrats to Claire, Katie & Alex for their tallest cylinders!

The next challenge my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN students took on this week was pulling handles the traditional way. With a pound & a half of clay, the challenge was to pull the longest handle possible. And again, it any part breaks off they could continue pulling with whatever was left in their holding hand… but they could not squish the broken piece back on. The three with the longest handles after 10 minutes got the points!!! Congrats to Ashley, Brittany & Autum (tied) and Angela!!!

And yes… sadly, Aaron’s very long handle broke as he pulled it one step too far… and there was no coming back from it!!!

This past week during the GREAT LILLSTREET THROWDOWN, we started with a “blind weighing” of clay challenge… where they each had to cut off four pieces of clay without the benefit of a scale. After they had guessed at the right weights, we checked them on the scale and rated them on the variance! The three people closest to the correct weights got the points!

Once they had the four balls of clay “correct”… we started with some basic handbuilding skills! First up… pulling the largest slab of clay on the table. No slab roller. No rolling pins. Just the largest continuous slab… and if a piece broke off, they were not allowed to squish it back on! Let gravity do the work… stretch that clay thin & wide!!!