Just finished subbing for Catherine’s Saturday morning Wheelthrowing class.
She requested that I show them pitchers & creamers… but her students requested plates.
So I just showed them all THREE!

THEY KNOCKED IT OUT OF THE PARK!!!
My students never cease to amaze me… once again, going above & beyond!

They were challenged to make a tulipiere using the extruder as their primary tool. They not only embraced the challenge, but they surpassed my expectations. It’s always amazing to see how a goroup of people can take on the same challenge – and end up with such different pieces. Such wonderful creativity. And so much fun to see the camaraderie that this group is forming. So supportive & helpful with each other. What a great class!!!

Dave tackled the challenge by extruding very skinny coils of porcelain.
And then continued to create his first coiled pot… ever!!! Really?…
Simply amazing for his first coil pot, right?!

Taylor worked with slightly thicker coils to create her tulipiere – complete with tubes for the flowers and bees for a little whimsy!

Teresa kept is simple and to-the-point… she didn’t have a ton of time for the challenge this week, but she succeed by streamlining her design.

Ryan took his tulipiere to a whole different ecosystem… welcome to Cactus World!
Such a wonderful twist on the project – making the vase a plant to hold plants!!!

But Ryan’s was one of the few tulipieres that I actually preferred without flowers!
I love the structure, the cubist-ness and the balance of it all without flowers!

Donna started with her plan to make a full basket, but along the way came up with
three “cantilivered ladders” to hold her flowers!

Patti’s tulipiere was a rounded tube to hold the water and more tubes propping up
to hold the flowers. Truth be told… her hubby did most of the actual construction
of the piece… and Patti did the decorating!

Susan used extruded coils to build her “hive” shaped tulipiere. Simple and clean… with three tube openings and additional “openings” in between to help hold the flowers in multiple layers & places.

Claire was the only one who added a bit of serious functionality to her tulipiere… with a removable lid so you can get in to clean it out after having flowers in it for awhile. Brilliant plan!!!

Jacob had been out of town for business examining factories & warehouses… and when he got back you could see that he had been deeply influenced.

Tatiana went organic… with her tulipiere made of extruded & alterd tubes. We all loved the addition of the lily pad tray.. and the adorable frog that came along for the ride!

I was especially enamored by the tulip leaf in the bottom right corner
that completely mirrored the clay leaf in the vase directly below it.

And our TOP TWO winners…
It was such a tough choice this time as they were all AMAZING!!!

Jon extruded his tubes and combined them in a organic tubular sculpture!
Beautiful layers, flow and gentle curves.

But the real kick… which made me actually gasp out loud…
was when he lifted the center out to reveal a smaller tulipere inside the bigger one!

With a beautiful “cup” receptacle in the center to hold it upright.

But put back together… it was easily in the TOP TWO!

Molly went totally geometric… stacked… layered… modular… perfect!!!
Balance, depth and great smooth craftsmaship all came together for Molly…
and her first time extruding… and practically her first time handbuilding too!!!

And even a bonus “single stem” tulipere mini vase!… extra credit???

So there they are – all twelve tuliperes!!!
Each and everyone AMAZING!!!

Huge thanks to my amazing students for accepting my challenges
and playing along with my crazy games.

They make teaching so fun & rewarding!!!
Thank you all.

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On Wednesday night, my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class was all about TULIPIERES!!!
And what’s a tulipiere, one might ask?! Well, we tackled it and they all made their version.
They came into class… thinking they were done.

And I still had one last TWIST in the game for them!!!

But seriously… a vase isn’t really a vase until it has held some flowers, right?
So I brought in some flowers for them to accessorize their tulipieres! So much better!

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My LILLSTREET THROWDOWN students are amazing…
as they embrace each challenge so fully & creatively.

Many of them were working on their challenge pieces Tuesday night while I was teaching my Beginning Wheelthrowing class. I resisted the urge to go see what they were doing… and trust me it was HARD!!! I kept hearing laughter, discussion and “reports” for other students about how cool their projects were… and how well they were all coming along. I SO wanted to go back to see them… but felt better to wait to see them at The Big Reveal in class Wednesday night.

Luckily, they’re also good photographers… so they took pictures for me… but Jon didn’t share them with me until AFTER class Wednesday night. Yes, they do love playing games too!

Here’s Jon working hard on his piece using the pile of tubes you’ve already seen.

 

Scoring… slipping… attaching…    and most of them are NOT handbuilders!!!

Donna was the only “handbuilder” coming into the class…
so she’s obviously enjoying this challenge!

While Ryan found the challenge to be a bit more prickly… making thorns with thick slip!

Claire on the other hand had great plans… and many choices to make along the way…

Not feeling so confident about the lid she’s adding to the tulipere…

Susan doing some finishing touches on her coiled pot.

 

 

Patti adding some last minute carvings to texture the tube of her tulipiere.

And if that weren’t enough... slip dots on the white tubes…

 

And Teresa was happy to be finishing her piece just in time for class!

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I’m so excited about my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class tonight!!!
This week’s homework challenge was to make a TULIPIERE with the extruder as their primary tool. These are the example photos I showed them… and I know that they’re going to knock it out of the park! Several of them were in the studio last night trying to finish… and I resisted the urge to go see what they were doing. Instead I want the “Big Reveal” surprise in class tonight!!! Can’t wait!!!

So my THROWDOWN students had about 90 minutes to extrude their clay and assemble two matching mugs. Seems like a long time… except it took quite awhile for everyone to get through the extruding process as we only have two extruders.  Also keep in mind that the clay was a little bit wetter & squishier than we may have wanted… so many of them were struggling with gooey clay as well.

Claire kept her hexagon tubes intact and added thin handles to her mugs… although we discussed my concern that her handles might be a little too thin to support the weight of her mugs if filled with coffee?!

Jon extruded his tubes and then “fudged” with them to make them more organic, smoothed, concaved and sweeping. Unfortunately… he forgot that “mugs” need handles!!!

Dave extruded slabs and handbuilt these pentagonal mugs with a matching geometric-shaped handle.

Molly added handles and little round feet to her square mugs.

Ryan combined a trio of tubes all sharing one central “container” vessel area. That way you can lift the “mug” with any of the tubes, and drink out of another one! Clever idea… although I’m not too sure it will work?

Donna extruded thin tubes, and then stacked them to be her mug walls!

Tatiana added trees & branches to her mugs… complete with twig-branch handles!

And then we got down to our TOP TWO winners…

Theresa who went very clean & simple, perfectly matching… with beautifully darted and beveled bottoms. Unfortunately, my photos don’t quite show the bottoms as well as I had hoped.

Susan played with her extruded tubes to give them a bit more of an organic feel… complete with leaves, berries and a lady bug!

Oh yeah…
And Taylor‘s entry into the game… as she decided to squish hers up and recycle the clay before I had a chance to get a photo!

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For this week’s LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class,
I decided to introduce my students to one of the most under-rated & frequently forgotten tools at Lillstreet… THE EXTRUDER! So after a quick demo on how to actually assemble and use the extruder.. they were challenged to make two matching mugs with the extruder as their primary tool! A bit overwhelming when you’ve never used and extruder… and then see that there are so many options!

And then they started extruding… realizing it wasn’t quite as easy as I had made it look.. and putting all their weight behind it…

And then realizing that teaming-up and working together might be the better plan!

Once they had their parts & pieces extruded, it was time to start assembling their mugs!
Dave with a very measured & precise approach…

Whereas Donna started with one plan of assembling vertical extrusions…

But then changed her technique in mid-stream…

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After missing their last class while I was in Germany, it was so fun to see what they had come up with during my absence. When I had last left them… they had been challenged to throw a new mug shape, a wide bowl, a platter and handbuild a tall vase-cylinder…. under limited time challenge! They were then tasked to decorate a mug, bowl, platter and vase with a similar technique to make them all look like they’re part of the same set. But then we had The Polar Vortex and missed a class… and some of their pieces dried a bit more than they wanted… and we decided that they needed three or four pieces for the competition entries.

Taylor went with a geometric design with a triangular motif in green slip and some textural carvings. We were all laughing at how much fun it would be to bake a pie in the platter… and then serve it with just that one piece cut out to display the green carved triangle!

Jon went with the simplicity of some deeply grooved and burnished B-clay…
and he knows I always LOVE a good spiral!!!

Molly went with two colors of slip and a bunch of fun splatters!

Claire utilized the motion & movement of a swoosh of slip, and then accentuated it with some wonderful carving through the slip.

Dave went with porcelain clay and then did some dramatic black slip “squirting” & slip trailing… but it is the novelty of the drips going upwards that kinda won us all over!

Theresa went geometric with a repeating pattern on her pieces, with a contrasting slip center.

Tatiana used a combination of stamps & rollers to create her amazing textures & patterns. I can’t wait to see how she glazes these to accentuate the details.

Ryan worked with a off-centered ombre effect with colored slip and then carved a sweeping pattern through all of his pieces.

Susan did a combination of slip painting & slip trailing on her pieces.

And we discussed how a couple of them may have missed an opportunity by NOT decorating the interiors of their low bowls & platters. Unfortunately, the beautiful slip decorating is on the underside and not easily seen. I think a bit of the decoration on the inside would have helped… but maybe that’s just me!?

So then we got down to or TOP TWO WINNERS!!!

Donna is primarily a handbuilder, so I LOVE the fact that she’s doing so well even with her wheelthrown pieces!! Plus, she’s was one of the few who decorated all FOUR of her pieces. Donna went with a wonderful “woodgrain” carving pattern for her pieces…. complete with knots in the wood.

Jacob killed it once again with some whimsical carvings! He put a layer of black slip on his pieces and then carved through with his new favorite tool… the DiamondCore V-Tip Carving Tool.

Sadly… Patti couldn’t make it to class this week. But her pieces were put out for inclusion in our judging. Unfortunately, Patti only had two of her pieces completed. But they were STUNNING sgraffito work… all done with just ONE the tiniest of sgrafitto tools!

And then a day late, and a dollar short… the third and final piece of Patti’s set.
And another stunning sgraffito project. Too bad she missed the deadline!!!

So that’s it for our Fourth Week of the Lillstreet Throwdown class. I have a great group of students again this year… and they’re definitely off to an AMAZING start!!!

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This week in my Tuesday night pottery class, we did my favorite demo of EVERY session! It’s the night when I teach my class how to make bowls on purpose.. instead of a cylinder gone bad!!! We talked about how to make one from the get-go… starting with a nice smooth curve on the inside. And NOT a flat bottom or a gouge in the side anywhere! So they all gathered around so I could do my demo where I make that one “perfect” basic bowl.

BOWL #1 – The basic round bowl. This was our “starting place.”

So after throwing the first bowl… I set my students free to go back to their wheels and start making some bowls. While they were throwing, I was too!!! I continued to throw more “basic” bowls… a full bag of clay-s worth… which turned out to be eighteen bowls. Pretty close to matching basic bowls.

When I was done throwing the bowls, re re-convened for Part Two of my bowl demo. This is the fun part where I show them some fun “tricks” they can use to make their own “basic” bowls not so basic any more!!!

BOWL #2 – FLUTED DUO
Two simple fluted twists, one on each side.

BOWL #3 – FLUTED MORE
And if two fluted twists are good, eight might be better?!

BOWL #4 – THIN FLANGE
Then  we took the top rim and flared it out & down to make a thin flanged rim.

BOWL #5 – WIDE FLANGE
If the thin flange was goo, maybe a wider flange would be better?

BOWL #6 – FLANGED & FLUTED
Folded out to make a thing flange and then added four fluted edges.

BOWL #7 – DOUBLE-DENTED
Who says a bowl needs to stay round?… and I’m thinking this might get a handle over from dent to dent.

BOWL #8 – SPLIT RIM WITH FOUR DENTS
I carefully split the rim using the pointed end of my wooden knife… and then dented it in at four places.

BOWL #9 – SPLIT RIM DENTED IN & DENTED OUT
After splitting the rim, I dented four spaces inwards, and then again four spaces outwards.

BOWL #10 – SPLIT RIM WITH EIGHT PINCHES
After splitting the rim, I carefully pinched it back together in eight places.

BOWL #11 – THE TRIPLE RIM CHALLENGE!!!
So Stacey, one of my former students who has seen the bowl demo before, challenged me to try a TRIPLE split rim!!! And you know I’m always up for a challenge!!! In retrospect, I kinda wish I had left a little more clay up in the rim if I had known I was going to go for the triple. But I perservered… and then pinched & pressed out in eight places.

My students were impressed… and referred to this a the “churro bowl.”

BOWL #12 – DRAGONSCALE FLOWER
Using my metal dragonscale tool, I pressed in the edges to make a stylized flower in the bottom of the bowl

After the first dozen bowls, I shifted gears and introduced my students to colored slip.
Just another fun way of decorating their “basic” bowls… to make them less basic!!!

BOWL #13 – THICK SLIP SPIRAL
I slathered on a layer of thick white slip, and then dragged the curved end of my wooden knife through the slip as the bowl was rotating on my wheel.

BOWL #14 – THICK SLIP SQUIGGLE
A thick layer of slip and then a little finger squiggle through for the pattern.

BOWL #15 – THICK SLIP PATCH
Using four pieces of newspaper dipped in water, I created a stencil by  placing the newspaper pieces in an open square. I filled that open square with thick slip, dragged a tool through it for the ridges, and then carefully removed the newspaper strips to reveal clean edges.

BOWL #16 – CHATTERING
Another layer of thick white slip, with some rhythmic tapping of a plastic rib through the slip as it was rotating on the wheel.

BOWL #17 – NEWSPAPER STENCIL
I carefully cut four letters out of the newspaper… I wet the letters and carefully pressed them smooth to the bowl. I carefully painted over the edges with some thin black slip, and the covered the entire bowl interior. The tough part is finding the newspaper letters to pull them out!!!

BOWL #18 – OMBRE
First a layer of thick white slip covering the interior, and then some thin black slip from the top edge inwards to blend and create the ombre effect.

For now they’re all under wraps in my studio. I’m pretty sure there’s a “good chance”there might be some stamping & detailing still to come before I trim the bottoms.

So it was another fun night – I LOVE this demo!!!
It’s so much fun to see the lights going off in my student’s heads as their eyes light up during the demo. A great combination of shock & awe as they start to see some of the possibilities. I know I might have overwhelmed thenm a bit… but my goal is that they got my main point…

Have fun.
Try something new.
Make your basic bowl not-so-basic.
Decorate it. make it yours.
I don’t care how.
But just HAVE FUN… it’s just clay!

 

 

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