This week in my SURFACE DECORATION class, we tackled underglaze transfers. I’m not a huge fan of the pre-made & purchased versions… so we “doodled” & made our own! Black underglaze outlines on paper… then filled in with colorful underglazes. Once they dried, we applied them to our leatherhard pieces just like a temporary tattoo! Wet with a sponge & press gently with a soft rib. Peel way the paper gently & the image had transferred to our pots. We had a lot of fun… and saw that there’s a bit of a learning-curve here. Kudos to those potters on Instagram that do this technique so flawlessly… we all have new-found respect!!!

For tonight’s SURFACE DECORATION class, I told my students to have some leatherhard pieces ready to play with. Looks like “someone”… me… might not have done their homework on time. Any wagers on whether I can get these freshly-thrown pieces to leatherhard in time for class??? You know I love a good challenge!!!

This week in my SURFACE DECORATION class, we tackled stamping & sprigging. I showed them the basics of how I approach a pot, how try emphasize the shape & geometry of the pot with my stamps… and the most important part… how to stamp! Sure, not rocket-science, but there are a few tricks!!! I did my demos and then set them loose… with their own stamps they had made the week before, as well as some of my collection. Many of them had made their “homework” pieces to work on, but I was glad I had a made a bunch too so they had more to “play” with! I tried to emphasize how stamping can become addictive… and they heard the mantra more than once…

MORE IS MORE!!!

For tonight’s SURFACE DECORATION class, their homework assignment was to bring a couple soft-leatherhard pieces to class to work on… as tonight we’re focusing on Stamping & Sprigs. Well there’s a chance… hypothetically… that I “may” have made a few extra pieces for my students to work on in case they failed on their homework!!! Allegedly…

After crackling slip, we spent the last half hour of our SURFACE DECORATION class making clay stamps. My goal is to have them bisqued quickly so we can start playing with them in next week’s class… where the focus will be “stamps & sprigs”!!!

Last night in my SURFACE DECORATION class, we played with some different slip colors mixed with a sodium silicate solution to help us create these wonderful crackled surfaces on our wheelthrown pots!!! Exciting as every one is different every time!!!

This week was our final Intermediate Wheelthrowing class… so we celebrated with a “trading-stealing-white-elephant” kinda game. Category being two dinner plates! We had a lot of fun trading plates… some came in as matching sets & others in singles. Including one matching set that came with an added BONUS… two matching mini’s!!!

Such a FANTASTIC group of students this session for my Lillstreet Throwdown class! Hard to believe this was my “season seven” of teaching this fun class! They all did such an amazing job. Always so creative, always focused & willing to take on any challenge I presented them with. They were all forced out their comfort zones… and seriously rose to the occasion! And yet always laughing & encouraging each other. Such great class camaraderie!!! They’re the best… they are the CHAMPIONS!!!

My apologies to Barb in advance… somehow I missed getting a good headshot photo with her ribbons! My bad.

The Final Challenge!!! Earlier in the session I tasked my students to create a full tea set based on a famous Fairy Tale. They had to make a teapot, two cups & saucers, a sugar & a creamer and a tray to hold them all together! That’s a LOT of parts & pieces… and the very first teapot build for most of them!!! Last night was the “Big Reveal” and they came out AMAZING!!! So much creativity & craftsmanship. So proud of them all. I just wish we would have had time to get them all glazed… as we decided for scheduling reasons that bisque-fired was good enough for last night. Huge congrats to them all… and THANKS for playing along with my pottery games!!!

I mean… prize ribbons are nice & all…but a TROPHY is even better! Who doesn’t want to win the Grand Prize Trophy?! Especially a handmade one for my Lillstreet Throwdown class! Tonight was our last class… and one lucky winner went home with glittery trophy tonight!!! More to come…