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

THEY KNOCKED IT OUT OF THE PARK!!!
My students never cease to amaze me… once again, going above & beyond!

They were challenged to make a tulipiere using the extruder as their primary tool. They not only embraced the challenge, but they surpassed my expectations. It’s always amazing to see how a goroup of people can take on the same challenge – and end up with such different pieces. Such wonderful creativity. And so much fun to see the camaraderie that this group is forming. So supportive & helpful with each other. What a great class!!!

Dave tackled the challenge by extruding very skinny coils of porcelain.
And then continued to create his first coiled pot… ever!!! Really?…
Simply amazing for his first coil pot, right?!

Taylor worked with slightly thicker coils to create her tulipiere – complete with tubes for the flowers and bees for a little whimsy!

Teresa kept is simple and to-the-point… she didn’t have a ton of time for the challenge this week, but she succeed by streamlining her design.

Ryan took his tulipiere to a whole different ecosystem… welcome to Cactus World!
Such a wonderful twist on the project – making the vase a plant to hold plants!!!

But Ryan’s was one of the few tulipieres that I actually preferred without flowers!
I love the structure, the cubist-ness and the balance of it all without flowers!

Donna started with her plan to make a full basket, but along the way came up with
three “cantilivered ladders” to hold her flowers!

Patti’s tulipiere was a rounded tube to hold the water and more tubes propping up
to hold the flowers. Truth be told… her hubby did most of the actual construction
of the piece
… and Patti did the decorating!

Susan used extruded coils to build her “hive” shaped tulipiere. Simple and clean… with three tube openings and additional “openings” in between to help hold the flowers in multiple layers & places.

Claire was the only one who added a bit of serious functionality to her tulipiere… with a removable lid so you can get in to clean it out after having flowers in it for awhile. Brilliant plan!!!

Jacob had been out of town for business examining factories & warehouses… and when he got back you could see that he had been deeply influenced.

Tatiana went organic… with her tulipiere made of extruded & alterd tubes. We all loved the addition of the lily pad tray.. and the adorable frog that came along for the ride!

I was especially enamored by the tulip leaf in the bottom right corner
that completely mirrored the clay leaf in the vase directly below it.

And our TOP TWO winners…
It was such a tough choice this time as they were all AMAZING!!!

Jon extruded his tubes and combined them in a organic tubular sculpture!
Beautiful layers, flow and gentle curves.

But the real kick… which made me actually gasp out loud…
was when he lifted the center out to reveal a smaller tulipere inside the bigger one!

With a beautiful “cup” receptacle in the center to hold it upright.

But put back together… it was easily in the TOP TWO!

Molly went totally geometric… stacked… layered… modular… perfect!!!
Balance, depth and great smooth craftsmaship all came together for Molly…
and her first time extruding… and practically her first time handbuilding too!!!

And even a bonus “single stem” tulipere mini vase!… extra credit???

So there they are – all twelve tuliperes!!!
Each and everyone AMAZING!!!

Huge thanks to my amazing students for accepting my challenges
and playing along with my crazy games.

They make teaching so fun & rewarding!!!
Thank you all.

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2 Comments

Ann

February 16th, 2019

Awesome!! what enthusiastic, creative students they are. Very inspirational.

February 16th, 2019

Awesome tulipieres! What a creative group!

I’m impressed.

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