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…
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…
Tonight was the final class for my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN students. So of course I had to come prepared. What’s a challenge-contest class without prize ribbons?!!! Not under my watch!!! They’ve been accumulating points all session… so there just had to be prizes… personalized of course!!!
As we get close to the end of the Winter session at Lillstreet Art Center, another “season” of my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class is quickly coming to an end. This past week was Week 9… and the last class for a bunch of crazy-fun competitions! Twenty to be exact!!!
So I set -up the room before everyone got there… separating the tables into challenge” clue & presentation” areas. Each section also had a folded clue attached. Hidden clues… no peeking!
So they all paired up into teams. Each player blindly choosing a different challenge clue. And then they could discuss their strategy & determine who would tackle each of their challenges. When they finished one task, they would then choose another clue and continue on. They had two hours to complete as many of the challenges as they could while working together or separately. There was a LOT of production going on all over the room… lots of handbuilding, lots of wheelthrowing… LOTS OF FUN!!!
As they finished a task, they got to choose their next challenge. Maybe with a little strategy… pick a new one…. or choose a challenge that someone else has already done, but you think you could do even better? Remember, only one winner per category!!!
Let the games begin!!!
Number One : Make an “ostrich” egg
Number Two : Replicate the glass bottle shape… disregarding the texture on the sides.
Number Three : Replicate the oval bowl.
Number Four : Make a free-standing cylinder 15″ tall
Number Five : Throw an 11″ dinner plate on the wheel
Number 6 : Make a pair of dice.
Number 7 : Matching coils each 24″ long
Number 8 : A hand-pulled slab at 15″ square smooth, flat & even.
Number 9 : Match the red votive cup three times throwing off-the-hump. whoops… missed a photo?!
Number 10 : Make the :”best” spiral.
Number 11 : Recreate and OREO cookie
Number 12 : Create a chain with at least 20 consistent links
Number 13 : Create some cutlery – make a knife, fork & spoon.
Number 14 : Make a wheelthrown one-piece citrus juicer
Number 15 : Roll a coil and then tie a traditional Celtic knot.
Number 16 : Throw a 12″ wide serving bowl with a well-defined interior curve
Number 17 : Make at least 21 pieces of “Lucky Charms” cereal
Number 18 : Create a perfect sphere with a 22″ circumference. whoops… my bad, no photos?!
Number 19 : Make a miniature bentwood cabaret chair at least 6″ tall what was I thinking?… missed another one?!
Number 20 : Wheel throw a Christmas tree… and decorate it too!
And that’s that… okay, so I missed a few photos along the way. Sue me.
At the end, we discussed them all challenge-by-challenge. Determining as a group who the winning team for each challenge. Lots of points awarded tonight leading into the Big Finale this week when they present their big “final” project… the full teapot set based on their chosen Fairy Tales!
