After watching a recent episode of British TV hit “The Great Pottery Throwdown” where the task was to throw some miniature pots… I knew we had to steal that idea and do it again!!! We tried to keep the challenge the same… where they had to throw three pieces each UNDER SIX CENTIMETERS… yes, we’re keeping it metric!!! So they each had to throw a miniature bowl, cylinder and a bulbous vase with narrowed neck. And to go one step further.. they also needed to add some color to their pots!

Now for some reason… on the television reality show, they didn’t allow them to throw off-the-hump?! I don’t think the topic even came up?.. maybe they don’t do that across the Pond yet? So my students didn’t get to either… finding out how difficult it is to wedge, center and throw such a small ball of clay!

After the 25-minute time limit ended, we did a little critique and measured to check that they all made it UNDER six centimeters!

And then we moved onto the next challenge… which was the same…
but now throwing off-the-hump!!!… and with 5 minutes less since it should be easier!

After the 20-minute time limit ended, we went back to discuss and compare the mini pots. And to discuss how they felt, what was easier, what was tougher, and if throwing off-the-hump made much of a difference!

So after tackling some basic handbuilding skills last week like rolling coils & throwing slabs, my THROWDOWN students were challenged to handbuild a decorative flower brick. It was so much fun to see them as they were “unveiled” from under their plastic wrappings. Each one was so amazing… and I loved seeing how each person interpreted the challenge, and designed their own version of a flower brick!

And what’s a proper flower brick without some flowers???…
so I brought in some fake flowers just to see how they looked in each person’s vase.

Sadly, I had two students who didn’t quite get to finish their pieces… one for a flu illness, and one for a family obligation. But the rest of them ROCKED IT OUT!!! They were so amazing… that we decided as a group that they were ALL WINNERS this week!!!

HELEN
We all loved the shape of Helen’s flower brick… and how it so perfectly splayed out the flowers. Along with textures & carved patterns… including textured straps across the top!

NORAH
A whimsical twist on the flower brick with a nod to a honeycomb.
Texturally “influenced” by one of my Stodola rolling pins!

TAYLOR
Our only wall vase… along with a removable lid that helps with cleaning!

JEN
A wonderfully textured vase with swirling rim-openings to help hold the flowers…
extra amazing as this was Jen’s first handbuilding project!!!

MOLLY
A textured square box with a removable lid for cleaning… and perfectly crafted flowers on the side. Plus, as I was taking these photos, I picked it up to move it over… and it was amazingly light!!! About half of the weight that I was expecting to lift up.

JACOB
A very smooth & groovy “flower power” brick on wheels!
NOW I see what all of that orange masking tape was used for…
to get the fine black lines detailing every side!

CHRISTINE
Such an amazingly clean & purposeful flower vase with a removable lid for cleaning purposes. A more than amazing entry from Christine… as this was her first handbuilding project… ever! I think she’s onto something!!!!

TRACY
With an amazingly colorful & fanciful patterned flower brick of terra cotta. And quite a few different decorative techniques layered & working together throughout all sides of the vase.

MELANIE
With a “quilted” basket look full of textures & patterns… and underglaze transfers.
Textures “courtesy of” my textured rolling pins from STODOLA!

So there they are… another AMAZING PROJECT that my students just KILLED!!!
This season’s group of Throwdown-ers is amazing!!!

After class last night, I happened to see two of my THROWDOWN students working on feverishly on their homework project in another classroom. I tried my best not to peek… not to see… not to get a glimpse… I tried, really I did... but I LOVED this pile of orange masking tape that Jacob was using to help with his detailed underglaze applications. Okay, I will say this… from what I “didn’t see”… these two projects are going to be AMAZING!!!

Can’t wait to see them “finished” tomorrow night in class!
Because I didn’t see them yet… much… maybe… okay, just a little… how could I not?…

Okay, so I’ve been trying my best to follow the new “standardized & mandated” syllabus for all Beginning & Advanced Beginning Classes at Lillstreet. So we did the demo for throwing a taller cylinder as listed.

And then we were also supposed to introduce colored slip as a decorative technique.
Maybe the assumption was that we would slip paint the demo cylinder???…
but I think it makes a lot more sense to demo some fun, quick tricks inside bowls.
But with bowls now being the Week One demo… I guess my big “Bowls On Purpose” and multiple rims & decorative techniques demo doesn’t quite fit the new syllabus???!

So I scaled it back a bit… only eight bowls with some slip techniques as “mandated”…
and a couple rim techniques as requested by my students! Which is a shame, because I’ve always thought that demo was one of my best ever… and my students were always WOW’ed by it!!! Hope they liked the shorter, smaller, scaled back version too?!

Bowl A – A simple flared flange rim.. with a thin layer of white slip.

And then there were a couple requests from students who have seen “the full” bowl demo before… and they asked if I could do the split rim bowls again.

And who am I to say “NO”?… even if it’s NOT on the “standardized syllabus?

Bowl B – Ashley’s requested split rim bowl with some quick pinches back together!

Bowl C – Another split rim fluted in and flared out…
kind of a lotus “squared off” bowl as requested by Michelle.

So then I got back on track… and back to the slip demo as “prescribed” by the syllabus..

Bowl D – I was going to paint on a full layer of white slip on the interior… but once I put that one first paintbrush swoosh…. we all kinda liked it and decided we should leave it there! So NOT my normal style, but they all voted to keep it this way! Especially because of that one “perfect” round drop!

Bowl E – This time I did fill the interior with thick white slip,a nd then dragged the rounded end of my wooden knife through the slip as the wheel was spinning… ‘cuz everyone loves a good spiral.

Bowl F – Another bowl covered with a layer of thick white slip…
and then squiggled & wiggled through with my fingertip!

Bowl G – After a layer of thick white slip again, I used a rounded rubber rib for some rhythmic chattering trough as the bowl was spinning.

Bowl H – Another student request… “Can you mix or blend two colors?”… so we did!
A nice ombre blend of white to black… and then a squiggle spiral through it.

After class I brought them all up to my studio and put them under plastic. I want to keep them soft… because there may just be a little stamping & detailing to be done to them still before trimming. Maybe?… Hypothetically?…

So far the LILLSTREET THROWDOWN has been mostly focused on wheelthrowing projects… but this week it took a turn into handbuilding!!! To ease our way in, we started with a few smaller challenges!

CHALLENGE #1 –
The were challenged to cut-off two “perfect” one-pound balls of clay. They could not use a scale, just their gut for weighing them blindly. Tougher than it sounds. After they each “thought” they had the one-pound balls… we went to actually weight hem with a digital scale! For most of them, they over-estimated the amount of clay. But we had two people who were shockingly spot-on!!! Tracy & Jacob were a tiny but under on one ball, and an equally tiny bit over on the other ball of clay… evening out to two “perfect” balls when averaged out.

CHALLENGE #2 –
The next challenge was to take those one-pound balls of clay and do a bit of coil-rolling. Some of my students had surprisingly never really rolled coils, so I did a quick demo for them. They then rolled coils trying to get them as long as they could in three minutes. The catch was, that if their coil broke at any point they could not put it back together… and their challenge was over as we would measure their longest segment. We had four “winners” in this challenge… one from each table… with Jacob, Taylor, Stacey & Dana. But they weren’t done yet…

CHALLENGE #3 –
The four “semi-finalists” carried on for another coil challenge! This time we doubled the amount of clay, and doubled the amount of time… and cut the number of hands in half!!! Yes, they could only use ONE HAND to roll the longest single coil that they could in six minutes!

But it was Dana who literally “rolled over” her competition…
and practically took over the entire table with her one-handed coil.

CHALLENGE #4 –
After coiling, we moved on to slab throwing. Again, we started with a quick demo… and then they started pulling their slabs. No slab rollers. No rolling pins. Just throwing them by hand!!! The goal was to get the largest continuous rectangle of clay… no folding over edges, no patching of holes, no fixing of tears… just one big solid rectangle.

After they pulled the clay as far as they thought they could,
I trimmed off the raggedy edges to reveal their inner-rectangle for measuring!

THE HOMEWORK CHALLENGE –
So now that they’ve warmed-up their handbuilding skills… it was time to give heir their next THROWDOWN CHALLENGE… and their first handbuilding challenge!!! For next week’s class, they need to construct a handbuilt flower brick. Keeping in mind their structure, stability, functionality and creativity! I showed them some examples of various flower bricks to inspire & get their creative juices flowing… and I also offered up my STODOLA textured rolling pins in case they wanted to use them?!

I can’ t wait to see what they come up with for our next class!

This week in my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class, they brought back their “dice-decorated” maquette cylinders along with the taller vases they made using the first piece as inspiration. The second part of the challenge was that it had to be a minimum of nine-inches tall. It was great to see how they each “embraced” the challenge both using the single die to decorated the cylinder, but then again to decorate the larger piece. The “spirit” of the challenge was to use that “one dice-one tool” concept for the larger vase once again… and to use the design concept from the first maquette cylinder to create a beautiful larger vase.

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Jen …

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Molly …

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Norah …

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Taylor …

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Tracy …

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Christine …

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Helen …

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Jacob …

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Jen …

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Stacey!
This project came in second… mostly for the overly-creative way Stacey worked outside of the box and extrapolated her layered maquette design into a stacked & textured “layer” vase!

And the FIRST PLACE dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Dana …
mostly for sticking with the “pure intention” of the challenge… and for learning & re-designing her vase based on what she liked & disliked about the maquette… as well as the smoothest burnished surface ever!!!

This week in my Tuesday night Beginning Wheel class we finally got around to finishing off their first MUGS!!! Typically my students finish mugs in Week Two… but we’re trying to follow the new Lillstreet “mandated” syllabus this session. Not sure yet how it’s going… I’m pretty sure I like MY sequence & syllabus a bit better… we’ll see…

For the in-class challenge, they found out it would be a surface decoration challenge.
Easy-peezy… especially when I passed out some already-thrown cylinders for them to work on. So all they needed to do was decorate them!

Oh, but there’s a twist!
They needed to do their entire surface decoration using just one tool.
And it was NOT a tool of their choice…

They found out quickly that that one tool was going to be a basic DIE…
yes, DICE for everyone!!!

After their 45 minutes for the challenge. we gathered to look at each of them. It was fun to see how they had each approached the challenge differently. Some went straight for stamping, some for drawing with a corner, some with colorful underglazes or slips using the die as the paintbrush!

At the time, we discussed their newly-decorated cylinders… with them “thinking” that THIS was the challenge! We talked about texture, pattern, and approaches to the challenge itself. But then they found out that this was not a judged challenge for points… but instead a stepping-off point for their next challenge!

So their homework for the week is to create a new vase that is a minimum of 9-inches tall that has surface decoration made again with that ONE TOOL… the dice! Their new cylinder does not need to match exactly, but instead be “inspired by” the original cylinder. I told the to think of that original cylinder as the “maquette” for their larger vase. So now I’m looking forward to next Thursday night when we get to see their newly created vases with DICE DECORATIONS!

This week at our LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class, my students brought back their set of four matching cylinders… now turned into matching mugs! Well kinda. Their week-long challenge was to convert their matching cylinders to matching mugs in terms of construction. And then to decorate them to be a good “matching” set where the cups don’t actually match, but have a great continuity of design that ties them all together. And oh, but wait there’s more… they also had to utilize at least four out of the five patterns… * spirals * stripes * polka dots * plaids * paisley.  With an added contingency that all four cups could NOT be identical in design. Just how I like it…. vaguely specific! And open to a lot of interpretation… as longs as they made their decoration “creative, thoughtful, deliberate & beautiful.”

So here we go… quite a few exciting & creative  entries into this week’s THROWDOWN challenge!

Taylor’s tall mugs with carved details…

Melanie’s “petticoat-inspired” colorful mugs with perfectly matching round handles.

Helen’s short stoneware mugs with carved accents…

Dana’s tall cylinders… whoops, no handles?… with beautifully carved patterns.

Jen’s cuties with carved “diagonal” details…

Molly’s colorful animal-inspired mugs… where each animal is based on one of the patterns!

Stacey went for a more “business” look with patterned ties on each cup!

Jacob went for detailed texture on his set which is destined for the soda kiln…
during the Soda-Firing Workshop I’ll be teaching next month at Lillstreet Art Center.

Coming in at second place, these beautifully layered patterned cups by Tracy.
Carved patterns with layers of underglaze patterns.

And our BIG WINNER this week… Christine with these amazing “cartoon” cups.
AMAZING CREATIVITY!!!… and great craftsmanship. Each cup tells its own story utilizing the designated patterns, as well as some of the actual verbiage from the challenge itself!

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