A bird’s-eye view of a couple new mugs…
three of my demo mugs & three of my beginning students mugs!

Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play |
A bird’s-eye view of a couple new mugs…
three of my demo mugs & three of my beginning students mugs!
It’s a new session of pottery classes at Lillstreet. So also, a new tie-dye…
and the newest OREO flavor for my classes this week!!!
While we’re in-between sessions at Lillstreet, it still seems like the perfect chance to show-off one of my Intemediate students and her handiwork! While sharing my MKM Pottery Tools with my class, Jen decided to make a “quick” handbuilt platter using a couple of my MKM hand rollers. Jen is normally a “wheelthrower”… so she assumed this would be a “quick” project to crank out. But quickly found out that handbuilding takes time & patience as well… with a lot of attachments & things to clean-up. But look at this textured plate… it’s AMAZING Jen!!!
As part of our final classes each session, I like to have a little fun with my students doing a “white elephant” trading-stealing-exchanging game! Tonight with my Beginners, the category was a handmade mug. And I came home with this beauty made by Maryanna! Which let me just say… worked perfectly to hold my hot fudge sundae during our potluck… a couple times… burp!
Last night I made a quick batch of hot fudge sauce… knowing that tonight my Beginning Wheel class was having their final class of the session. And we like to finish it off with a fun potluck… and our theme this time??? ICE CREAM SOCIAL.
So I just had to bring my favorite Grandma Kitty’s hot fudge!!!
Last night in my Intermediate Wheelthrowing class, we celebrated the end of another session with a fun “white elephant” trading, exchanging & stealing game! Category was?… COOKIE JARS… many of them already filled with cookies!!! Nicely done team!
HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to Ruth for taking home the First Place win!!! And kudos to everyone else who did such an amazing job this session! Turns out Season Six of THE GREAT LILLSTREET THROWDOWN was one of my favorites… with a great group of people all working hard, playing hard… and keeping it light, humorous & inclusive for everyone!
I know I had an amazing time this session… although I kept telling them all that they weren’t there to really learn anything. They were just there TO ENTERTAIN ME!!!” …and they did weekly!!! I’m already looking forward to next Winter when we get to do this all over again… with new peeps & new challenges!!! Thanks again everyone… it was another great class to teach!
Okay, so there may have been a “surprise” trophy too…
And what fun would a Throwdown “competition” class be
without having RIBBONS FOR EVERYONE?!!!
So I made a few to hand out…
The final “Big Build” for this year’s GREAT LILLSTREET THROWDOWN was a functioning tabletop water fountain. My students received this challenge early on in the session so they had several weeks to get them all put together. They each also received a mechanical pump… and a single “word” to inform & inspire the designs for their fountain. All in all, they did an AMAZING job… some with a bit of a sputtering trickle, or an overflowing splatter of water… but I think that’s more the pumps fault than their fountains! It was an AMAZING finale for our Throwdown’ers!!!
RUTH : “labyrinth”
KATIE : “art deco”
ELLEN: “groovy”
EMILY : “zen”
TAYLOR : “floral”
SHANNON : “puzzle”
Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
Lillstreet Studios ∙ 4401 North Ravenswood, Chicago, Illinois 60640 ∙ 773-307-8664 gary@firewhenreadypottery.com |