So we had a table full of building blocks… and what better to do with them than to SURPRISE Molly & Jacob with a little Baby Shower and a bunch of blocks for the baby-to-be! Everyone in the class was in on the surprise… well, except for Jacob & Molly. They were surprised when we “revealed” the blocks, said they were all for them… and then made them judge the winners!

And for those who may remember… a year ago we were “celebrating” the final night of our LILLSTREET THROWDOWN Season Two by making extruded vases for Jacob & Molly’s wedding!

Time flies. Memories made.

After building cubes in class last week, my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN students were challenged to turn them into “traditional” building blocks. One side of the block had to feature a letter they chose randomly “from-a-hat” & another side had to be a sgraffito-carved animal that starts with the same letter. The remaining sides had to be carved, slip trailed and decorated with the theme!

Dana’s set of building blocks…
L is for LION. T is for TIGER. O is for OTTER. Y is for YAK.

Donna’s set of building blocks…
Z is for ZEBRA. D is for DACHSHUND. N is for NIGHTCRAWLER. P is for PIG.

Taylor’s set of building blocks… not quite so colorful, not quite so done yet…

Melanie’s set of building blocks… unfortunately, not quite done yet…

Helen’s set of building blocks…
E is for ELK. V is for VOLE. A is for Aardvark. W is for WOLF.

Christine’s set of building blocks…
S is for SHEEP. C is for CRAB. A is for ALLIGATOR. H is for HORSE.

Tracy’s set of building blocks…
U is for URCHIN. Q is for QUETZAL BIRD. W is for WHALE. X ids for X-RAY FISH???

With the end of the LILLSTREET THROWDOWN bearing down on us, I had to get started on a “little project” of my own a couple weeks ago! Getting ready for the final night when the Big Winner would be revealed!!!

So tonight was the last class of the 10-week session for my Tuesday night wheelthrowing students… and we like to celebrate with a potluck & a little White Elephant trading-picking-stealing kinda game. This session we all put in a mug… and I care home with beauty made by Shannon! Oddly enough, at the end of the game… she went home with my mug!!! Cup karma.

We kicked off NATIONAL OREO COOKIE DAY just a little bit early… last night when one of my THROWDOWN students made a mini ceramic OREO!!! Yes!!! Christine found this amazing metal stamp online and knew “we just had to have it”!!! Oh, the possibilities!

Now let’s not get crazy…
I’m still eating actual OREOs today to celebrate this momentous occasion!!!

After the huge success of the Matryoshka Challenge… it was time to tackle the next challenge in our LILLSTREET THROWDOWN. We went back to handbuilding, with the task of building four “perfect” 3-inch cubes in seventy-five minutes! Sounds like plenty of time… but apparently not so much… as they had to finish cubes & paint a layer of colored slip on one side before they could call them done! And we all know by now… that “done” doesn’t every really mean DONE! More to come…

Probably the toughest challenge put to my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN students… a full set of five Matryoshka!!! Yes, five pieces of Russian Nesting Dolls that all fit together, nestle amongst themselves & carry a consistent design. This was a tough challenge for all of them to tackle in just one week – both technically & artistically! Some squeaked by, while others full-on KILLED IT!!!

They decided to keep their sets under-wraps… ready for the BIG REVEAL as we went around the table. The anticipation was killing me!

Dana’s set… that unfortunately only had four pieces, instead of five! They looked spot-on with the traditional matryoshka shape. But she ran out of time for the fifth one… let alone any decorating of her set!

Jacob’s set… which was unbelievable tight when the pieces all fit together. Amazing craftsmanship to throw them so perfectly. So tight that he decided on a little “strategy” to wait until after they were bisque fired just in case he needed to do a little sanding or grinding to keep them fitting so well. When they were all stacked together they looked perfect! However, when they were unstacked and laid out on the table… it was only then tjat you saw that the last two didn’t have fitting lids. They looked great nestled together inside… but didn’t fit when they were apart!

Helen’s set… which unfortunately was unfinished… it din’;t quite have the requisite number of pieces inside! But with all that has been going on thses days, she did sculpt a COVID-19 cell of bacteria to it inside Mr. Potato Head!

Even Donna got into the challenge! Donna was the winner from “Season Two” from last year’s LILLSTREET THROWDOWN. She was missing all the fun, just happened to be around and decided =she was going to play along with. us!

Here’s Melanie’s THIRD PLACE set… compete with several cats sitting in their balls of yarn!

Here’s Tracy’s SECOND PLACE entry… a very traditional take om the Russian nesting dolls. Complete with traditional tole painting in traditional colors!

And Christine’s FIRST PLACE winning entry! As soon as she “revealed” her set… it was the hands-down winner! She creatively honored each of our previous THROWDOWN homework challenges in her set… as well as immortalizing little old me… complete with tie-dye shirt, black shorts & Crocs!

The second layer was an ode to the challenge where they made Flower Bricks!

The third layer was for the challenge when they made Matching Mugs with four patterns… dots, stripes, plaid & paisley!

The fourth layer was for the Matching Bowls and colored slip challenge…

The final piece inside… a SWEET little hidden treasure… and so perfectly suited for this class & me!!! A perfect little OREO made entirely out of clay!

After the bowls & spoons challenge, I decided to up the ante with possibly their toughest LILLSTREET THROWDOWN challenge yet!!! MATRYOSHKA… yes, a set of five Russian Nesting Dolls.

I showed them some examples, as many of them jumped right in on throwing their parts. But it was going to be the sizing, trimming, stacking & decorating that was really going to make them work… hopefully enough to “bring us to tears.” Just like Clover did to judge Keith in season two, episode six of “The Great Pottery Throw Down.”

This week my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN students were challenged to create four bowls with colored slip & four spoons… only then to find out they needed to make a large serving bowl and large serving utensil to go with the set. As always, my students totally killed this challenge. They never fail to amaze me every week!!!

Here’s Christine’s set…

Here’s Tracy’s set… terra cotta bowls with an ombre fade inside, and an amazingly smooth burnished terra sigillata exterior.

Here’s Norah’s set…

Here’s Molly’s set…

Here’s Helen’s set…

Here’s Jen’s set… complete with pink slip & splattered accents, chopsticks and a large ladle to serve!

Here’s Dana’s FIRST PLACE SET… great contemporary lines, both the decoration and the shape of the set… and a couple extra spoons as she found that she kinda loved making them!

After the “eventful” firing day Saturday…
and a full cooling day yesterday, it was time to come back and unload the soda kiln with my workshop participants. I stopped in on Sunday to help speed-along the cooling process, as well as early Monday morning pulling a few bricks off the top row.

When the class showed up, we started taking off the kiln door brick. It’s always fun to see the “treasures” inside kind of reveal themselves layer by layer!

Eventually the entire door was off… and they could all see their newly soda-fired pots!!!

We unloaded the kiln, took all of their pots into the classroom while we cleaned the kiln, scraped the shelves and re-kiln washed the shelves. Once all of the busy-work was done, we could enjoy our potluck… and admire our new pots!!!

Cassie’s pots…

Kate’s pots…

Martin’s pots…

Christi’s pots…

Dan’s pots…

Charles’ pots…

Jacob’s pots…

And a couple of my mugs… as a little kiln filler along the way!

All in all, a great firing. Even with the crazy firing “issues’ we had, the work still came out nice. Good amount of soda, lots of flashing, nothing too crazy!!!

I think all-in-all, everyone had a great time in the Soda Workshop. I know three days are not really enough time to “learn” everything about soda-firing… but it was at least a good primer for them. Kind of a quick glance to see if they “like” soda-firing or not… before the addiction truly begins!