The Pottery Olympics continued… after the “stronger” wheelthrower had made the “perfect bowl”… their team-mate was then challenge in the next round to step it up and MATCH that perfect bowl that their partner made! Another two pounds, and a little longer with 20 minutes to match the same size & shapes of their team-mates’ bowl! Hard enough to match your OWN bowls… let alone matching someone else’s bowl!!! All part of the fun of the LILLSTREET THROWDOWN!

Our Pottery Olympic events came fast & furious last night during my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class. We switched back to the wheel where one team member per team was challenged to throw their “perfect” bowl with two pounds of clay… with the parameters of 8″ wide by 5″ tall. So of course each team tried to choose their stronger wheel-thrower to compete here. They had ten minutes to perfect their bowl… smooth curves, not flat bottoms, no beginner’s ledges, nice rim, etc.

Once the slabs were thrown, cut-off to rectangular shapes and measured… the next Olympic Event was to decorate, carve or texture the slabs! My THROWDOWN suggestion was to work together and have a concerted design plan for the slab! And yes, pandering to my love of a good theme can’t hurt any!

The next “event” of The Pottery Olympics was to see who could roll the longest continuous coil using two pounds of clay. The rule was that if your coil breaks, you cannot squish is back together! You could keep rolling with what was left…as we were looking for the longest coil in 10 minutes!

After rolling, the team-mates were then challenged to make the tallest free-standing “tower” cylinder using the coil. And yes, we even’d out the playing field by making the tower builders all use the same length of coil. Turns out the big discussion was if the one in the center was indeed a “cylinder” or not?… your vote???

The next challenge for The Pottery Olympics was to throw the tallest cylinder on the wheel using three pounds of clay in ten minutes. Sounds simple enough, right?! Except the real challenge was that the team members had to switch positions taking turns throwing every minute!!! Sixty seconds… switch… sixty seconds… SWITCH!!!

he first “event” of our Pottery Olympics last night was to have each team cut certain weights of clay off the big block. They had like nine different pieces to cut… but the twist was that they could NOT use a scale!!! They had to do it “logically”… or some tackled it “analytically”… but it was amazing how close they all got to the correct weights!

Which we did double-check with a scale before awarding points for first, second & third places!

Here’s my December chain for the 2021 Monthly Chain Challenge… stamped, glazed & painted. It’s gone through a few variations, but now it’s gold & done!!! So much fun to finish the monthly challenge… the brainchild of my friend Sarah Chapman. Originally intended for metalsmiths, but FUN for me too!!!

#chainchallenge2021 – #handmadechain – #chainlinks2021

I decided that the unstamped rings of my chain were a little too plain… so I decided to add a little shine to them!!! A little bit of metallic glimmer can only help make my “final” chain of the year-long challenge a bit more special!!!

#chainchallenge2021 – #handmadechain – #chainlinks2021

Here’s my December chain for the Monthly Chain Challenge.
Cute, but I’m thinking it still needs a little “more”…
as we all know MORE IS MORE!!!

Gotta keep working on it… I’ll post finished pictures tomorrow!

#2021chainchallenge – #handmadechain – #chainlinks2021

Eleven out of twelve… only one to go… so I’ve been working on my “last” chain for the Monthly Chain Challenge. This is what it was looking like while I was constructing it in my studio.

#2021chainchallenge – #handmadechain – #chainlinks2021