Another entry in the “post-pandemic-shutdown” glazing of Lillstreet Throwdown projects… Christine finally got her colorful bowls back with some mixed results! For many of her projects in my Throwdown class, Christine was experimenting with some colorful underglazes, and slips made with Mason Stains. A bold move without testing the results first. Well, we finally have some of her pieces back to compare before & after firing.

Some of the colors worked well, some of them not-so-much. Orange looks like the big winner… turquoise good… green fired darker than expected but still nice… as well as the purple which actually turned out to be more of a deep blue?! Pretty, but blue. And the yellow?… GONE!

Here’s her set of four matching bowls… with colorful flowers!

And her set of matching dessert bowls…

And her tie-dyed bowls with swirled slip… again, orange is the WINNER!

Pre-pandemic we were just finishing up our Great Lillstreet Throwdown class… just a couple days later the world shutdown! So now, several months later, some of my students are just now getting around to glazing their pieces. These are two pieces by Jacob… a sgraffito carved bowl and his Volkswagon VW flower brick!!!

A far cry from Jacob’s penchant for dipping all of his pots in a plain lavender glaze like he did for the first couple years!

So apparently I touched my face… err, my mask… a bit more than normal in class this morning?! I think it might have been when I had to pop it off for a second when I showed them how to blow into a bottle to “inflate” and enlarge it a bit.

And did anybody notice how I said “mask” and “normal” in the same sentence and it didn’t seem weird?

Okay, THAT’s weird!!!

Today in my Intermediate Wheelthrowing class we tackled throwing taller… vase, bottle, whatever. It was all about getting the clay to move up off the bottom, getting it out of the bottom corners and move it up the sides to make taller pieces.

After a demo with a few quick tips & tricks, they were well on their way. I gave them a challenge of at least 9-inches tall with two pounds of clay. Everyone who tried it made it… and some were just a bit giddy!

So our baby blocks finally came out of the kiln…
and I got together last night with Molly & Jacob to drop them off!

Remember, we made these ceramic blocks last session pre-Covid during our Lillstreet Throwdown class. Newly pregnant at the time, but now they’re one month away from their due date! They loved their baby blocks… so ADORABLE… and I loved the Lickety Split frozen custard we went out for afterwards too!

Gotta love a good spiral… whether it’s monochromatic or ombre’! Just some more time last night playing with colored slips in my demo bowls! Spinning spirals… always FUN!!!

Last night in my Beginning Wheelthrowing class, we tackled making “bowls on purpose”… instead of cylinders gone bad! After making a few demo bowls, we regrouped (socially-distanced of course) for more demo time where I showed them some quick tricks & techniques on how to make their basic round bowls not so “basic” any more! Ten quick bowls & ten different decorative techniques!

Bowl #1 – Eight fluted edges around the rim.

Bowl #2 – A narrow flared-out flange.

Bowl #3 – A wider flared out flange.

Bowl #4 – Split-rimmed and then pinched back together in eight places!

Bowl #5 – Split-rimmed with four indented sides to make a kind of quadrefoil effect.

Bowl #6 – Split-rimmed and then pinched in & pinched out making like a squared-off lotus shape.

Bowl #7 – White slip with a tight spiral dragged through.

Bowl #8 – A thick layer of white slip with a fingertip squiggle dragged through.

Bowl #9 – White slip chattered with a rubber rib as the bowl was spinning on the wheel.

Bowl #10 – White & black slip ombre’ blended and then a spiral dragged through.

And for now they’re under wraps in my studio drying slowly… as many of them “might just” get some stamping, texturing & detailing?!

Tonight my Beginning Wheelthrowing students tackled trimming, handles, mugs & stamp-making! It was a busy class… and they’ve now completed their first mugs!!! And it’s only Week #2!!! They’re off to a good start.

Last week was our first week back at Summer Camp!!! Lillstreet Art Center is finally re-opened for classes & camps… and it was so fun & exciting to have “people” back in the building. The energy. The creativity. The smiling faces… or well, at least I assume they were smiling behind their masks?! Anyway… summer camp was AMAZING as always. I had a wonderful time with a wonderful group of kids!!!!

One of the best parts of “kiln firing day” is I can also get a lot of “busy-work” done around the studio. Like spraying these baby building blocks with a layer of clear glaze. If you remember, these were leftover from the end of our Winter session and my Lillstreet Throwdown class. We made them as a surprise gift for Molly & Jacob who are expecting their first child. We finished building them at the end of class, and they were bisqued soon after that. And there they sat on the shelf as the pandemic took hold.

Sure, I was working in the studio. Sure, I could have glazed these any time over the past three and a half months… but of course I kept putting it off. Well, they’re FINALLY glazed… and ready to be fired again! The “Team Lavender Baby” is due in six weeks… so I had plenty of time. Could have easily procrastinated a few more weeks!!!