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”

As we were racing towards the “big finale” of our LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class, we celebrated with quite possibly the “classiest candlelit” potluck ever seen at Lillstreet! Earlier in the session,k my students were tasked with making a trio of candlesticks in class. So it was great fun & very dramatic to have them all return for our final class!!! All lit up & providing a wonderful ambiance for our class potluck.

I mean… who doesn’t want chocolate cookies with colorful FROSTING?!!!
Especially from our pals at OREO who have pulled out all the stops & all the food coloring!!!
Although I will say… we all kinda missed the special Space Dunk Pop-Rocks in pottery class!!!

While sharing my textured hand rollers from MKM Pottery Tools in class, one of my Intermediate students tried to make her own version of my “hybrid mugs.” Darcy has been getting some great results by wheelthrowing a cylinder, then rolling a textured pattern on the sides & then cleaning up the rim again on the wheel. Always good to a student take your “inspiration” and then find a way to twist it & make it their own!

After an hour of sculpting time, my THROWDOWN students had finished their first cereal mascot sculptures. Only to find out that they weren’t done yet… and that they had to do a second one in just 45 minutes!!! They could have traded mascots… but instead, all decided to go with a new cast of cereal characters!!! It was so much fun watching them make these amazing sculptures… watching the parts & pieces come together in the final minutes!!!

This week in my GREAT LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class, I challenged them all with a sculpture challenge! Most of them had never done a three-dimensional sculpture before. And what better way to celebrate NATIONAL CEREAL DAY than by sculpting some of the famous cereal mascots!!! They may have been new to sculptures… but “They’re Grrr..rreat!!!