For the final pottery class of every session, I challenge my students to make a certain item during the class, finish and bring it in for our “trading-stealing-exchanging” game. This time we went with flowerpots with a plant in it… and they were all great… okay, so there were two that didn’t quite make it through the final glaze kiln… but a GREAT GAME and a GREAT SHOWING from my class. A wonderful ending to another session of wheelthrowing classes!

Here’s Jen’s flower pot… and the one I cam home with after the game! LOVE IT!!!

Okay, so two of them didn’t quite make the deadline…
and didn’t make it through glaze kiln in time for our exchange game.
So now I guess it’s a DIY flowerpot… after the fact.

My partial TA Claire’s flower pot…

My regular TA Susan’s flower pot…

And here’s MY contribution to the game…
wheelthrown, stamped & glazed now with a Sago Palm taking residence.

Save

Save

Last night in my pottery class, we celebrated our last class with a potluck… this time with a THEME!!! They decided since we made chip & dip bowls at one point, we should do an ALL DIPS potluck… with a twist. The challenge was that your dip had to start with the first letter of your first name. So I went with a “Gooey Ghiradelli & Grahams” combo!!!

So excited to see that one of my pottery students made it onto the “Show-Off Shelves” at Lillstreet with her beautiful sgraffito platter! Well done Katie – it turned out GREAT!!!

Save

Two sessions worth of class demo bowls that I finally got around to glazing!
Cleaning, packing & pricing… just in time for this weekend’s art fair in Schaumburg…
and saving some for two weeks later in Hinsdale too!!

Save

Well lookey here.. one of my advanced beginner students Michelle has been working hard to make a nice plate… and by golly, she sure did!!! Of course I LOVE everything about it. Not that I had much “influence” on her… but it sure is a great plate Mish Dish!!!

Save

Tonight in my Beginning Wheel pottery class, I’m bringing another bag of OREO’s… this time imported from Columbia!!! A former student was traveling there and found these yummies… and “smuggled” them back for us!

Muchas gracias mi amiga Patti.

I’m intrigued by the smaller packages of four cookies inside the larger package…
perhaps Columbia’s way of limiting serving size???

Just means I need to open a few more small packages, right?!

Another wonderful piece fresh from the kiln from our LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class!
Molly’s challenge-winning tulipiere looks even more amazing after glazing!!!

I threw a challenge out to my students for this session… that they each make a flower pot in class that they finish, glaze, fill with plant… and bring to our final class for a fun “trading-stealing-exchanging” game! So last night I showed them how to throw one with an attached water dish!

Last night in class, one of my students was making a masterpiece of her own… stamping a shallow bowl with one of her own handmade stamps and adding final touches with the side of a paintbrush to add a bit of texture around the outer rim. I feel like a “proud papa”!!!

Lots of class demo bowls require LOTS of trimming. Luckily I love trimming… so it was kind of enjoyable to finish off this latest batch of eighteen class demo bowls. Now trimmed with a clean footring and drying… many of them upside-down as I think that might help avoid warping?! No real “proof”… but why not go with it anyway???