By the end of class Thursday night, we had a table full of fresh fruits… and some “not-so-fresh” clay fruits! At times it was tough to tell the difference… so we put the clay trompe l’oeiil ones on white plates for presentation! Such an amazing night with my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN peeps… showing off their handbuilding skills with a fun & fruity challenge!!!

Once the twist was revealed, my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN students had a half hour to paint their handbuilt fruits. Their clay fruits looked great without color… but the underglazes really brought them to LIFE!!!

With just a half hour left to the challenge… I thought we needed a bit of a THROWDOWN twist. Fresh fruits need vibrant colors, right?! So the add-on twist was to paint all of their fruits to make them even more realistic with underglazes. This pear and this “bottom-of-a-bucket-palette” were both part of my demo!

This week’s class challenge for my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN was to create trompe l’oeil replicas of colorful fresh fruits. They each drew three names randomly to determine which fruits they had to tackle. Then we put their handbuilding skills to the test to recreate every bump, groove, bruise & stem!

For this week’s LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class project, I decided to kick it off with a little visual inspiration! Only Mother Nature can create this amazing collection of shapes, colors & textures! But my students were going to give it a try too!!!

Last night was the first night of our new “season” of THE GREAT LILLSTREET THROWDOWN! A fun class full of challenges, contests & projects! To kick-off the “season” I challenged them with both wheelthrowing & handbuilding tasks with a geometric twist… and a bit of multitasking! The challenge was a wheelthrown sphere, a 6-inch slab-built cube, and a 12-inch coil-built cone. Each with a limited time frame, as the challenges start to “pile-up” on each other as the night went on.

I always enjoy watching how my “contestants” approach a challenge, manage their time, and finish it all off in the end. It was a fun night & a fun challenge… and they all did great!!! We’re off to a great start.

So they started off with wheelthrowing a perfectly round sphere!

Part way into their allotted time for the sphere… I stopped the clock, called them over, and they found out about having to make a 6-inch cube with slabs. So now they had TWO projects to work on… multi-tasking & considering how to best utilize their limited time!

A little further into the challenge… we stopped the clock one more time… wished Melanie a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!… and then added a third challenge. They now had to also make a 12-inch tall coil-built cone!!!

So they now had all three challenges… and some more time to multi-task… so they kind of bounced around the place trying to finish all three in time!!!

At the end of the time, we pulled all three pieces together for critique & judging. We chose our top sphere, top cube & top cone… as well top trio!

Okay, so maybe one of the cones didn’t quite get finished in time… but bonus points for getting so creative with it!!!

But then there was one last-minute challenge… a little homework for the team! The cubes are not quite done… their “homework” is o take their cubes homes and do some creative textural carving on them for judging next week!

Here’s my December chain for the 2021 Monthly Chain Challenge… stamped, glazed & painted. It’s gone through a few variations, but now it’s gold & done!!! So much fun to finish the monthly challenge… the brainchild of my friend Sarah Chapman. Originally intended for metalsmiths, but FUN for me too!!!

#chainchallenge2021 – #handmadechain – #chainlinks2021

I decided that the unstamped rings of my chain were a little too plain… so I decided to add a little shine to them!!! A little bit of metallic glimmer can only help make my “final” chain of the year-long challenge a bit more special!!!

#chainchallenge2021 – #handmadechain – #chainlinks2021

Eleven out of twelve… only one to go… so I’ve been working on my “last” chain for the Monthly Chain Challenge. This is what it was looking like while I was constructing it in my studio.

#2021chainchallenge – #handmadechain – #chainlinks2021

Hard to believe it’s the last day of November… and therefore time for another handmade chain for the “Chain Of The Month Challenge.” So here’s November’s entry… fresh out of the soda kiln. Fired in a “medium” soda area so that the links wouldn’t fuse together… and yet still get enough soda exposure for some fun flashing effects! Number eleven… can’t believe we just have one more to finish off the year?!

#2021chainchallenge
#handmadechain
#chainlinks2021