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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And oh, but wait there’s more… and THEN at the end of class last night, Stacey shows up with this OREO treat from Argentina!!! Layers AND dipped in fudge!!! Tasty… but I still LOVED The Most Stuf more!!!

So I thought my OREOs from Germany would be a hit with my pottery class last night…
and they were… UNTIL Katie showed up with these!!!

Some thought it was too much…
but those of us with the palate of a four-year-old LOVED THEM!!! More is more!!!

When in Germany, shop for OREOs right?
My most “important” souvenir to share with my pottery class tonight.

Including these “new-to-me” OREO Joy-Fills which look like
little crunchy nuggets of yumminess!!!

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While I was in Germany, I missed my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class.
I planned their projects & homework… and thanks to Lisa for stepping in to deliver the challenges! Looks like I missed a good time. Can’t wait to see the “results” from their homework assignment in class this week!!!

They started with throwing a new cylinder shape for a mug…

And then they switched quickly to handbuilding. While many of them have not done a lot of handbuilding, I thought it would be fun to throw them out of their comfort zone a bit. So they had to make the tallest cylinder out of two pounds of clay… a bit more challenging than you might expect…

After their foray into handbuilding, they went back to their wheels
to throw “the tallest vase”… “the widest bowl”… and “the widest platter.”

And just when they may have thought they were done… the homework assignment!!!
They need to make their mug, add it to the vase, bowl and platter collection
and then do some sort of surface decoration to make them look like a “set.” It will be great to see what they do… especially since I missed the last class so it will truly be a blind judging this week!!!

Towards the end of class Tuesday night, we had a little “free time” to sit around, chat and make a bunch of new stamps. Once bisqued, I can’t wait to see what magic my students make with their new stamps!