Tonight was the first night of my new session of pottery classes.
My Beginning & Advanced Beginning Wheelthrowing Class has some new students. Some just “new to me.” And several fun “repeat offenders.” Either way, I hope they had a great time. And if I didn’t win them over with my teaching & witty banter… I sure hope the Garrett’s Chicago Mix Popcorn sealed the deal.

So I just checked in and found out that my Tuesday night
Beginning Wheelthrowing Class at Lillstreet Art Center is already FULL!!!
All 18 wheels will be filled with fun people ready to play in the mud with me!
Whoo-hoo!!!

The Winter Session of classes begin at Lillstreet Art Center the second weekend of January.
And if you’re looking for a great Christmas gift… to give as a gift, or for yourself… you can
you can already sign-up for my Tuesday night class of Beginning Wheelthrowing!

Well technically it’s Beginning & “Advanced Beginning” which means return beginners are more than welcome. As well as brand new newbies, or people who may have played with clay a lifetime ago! Either way, the 10-week class will take your through the full process and give you lots of time to make your own treasures. Part of your class includes open studio access seven days a week!!!

Click here to register online, or stop by Lillstreet, or call to register over the phone.
But hurry up… my classes fill up fast!!!

It’s amazing how fast 10-weeks flies by!
Tonight was the final class for my Beginning Wheel students. They were busy finishing up their pots, snacking at our potluck, chatting, laughing & hanging out. Basically solving all the problems of the world. And good thing we had plenty of sweets to keep everyone happy… especially me!!! I’ve trained them so well…

We finished our class with a “bowl” exchange game.
At some point we expanded the definition of “bowl” to any “vessel” they’ve made. Guess some students didn’t quite finish a bowl?! Anyway, after our “exchanging-trading-stealing” game, I came home with a great mug by one of my repeat students Nadine!!!

Tonight before class I had a wonderful visit with a fellow potter from South Carolina. Stephanie follows my blog and decided to put a visit to my studio on her itinerary while here in Chicago for her husband’s business trip. It was great to meet them both, talk pottery and give them a tour of Lillstreet Art Center. I hope they enjoyed their visit as much as I did… and Stephanie is taking a mug home as a souvenir!

As I was leaving the studio tonight, I decided to exit through the classrooms to chat with friends and to see if I had any class demos that had come out of the kiln.

Well… I hate when this happens…

Apparently one of them did in fact come out of the kiln. It’s what happened next that I would love an explanation for. My slip demo plate was sitting on the bisqued cart just like this. In two pieces!!! It obviously got broken during the unload, or by a careless student. I understand accidents happen. But they could have at least left a note!

On the good side… at least we can see how even my throwing & trimming were… I guess we’ll chalk this one up to “another” demo. One that I didn’t plan on sharing.

The 2013 Student Member Show opened today in the Lillstreet Gallery.
And while I’m not part of the show, it’s great fun for me to see so many
of my previous students & friends in the show. A lot of great pottery, sculpture,
jewelry & paintings by a lot of great artists. The show only runs for a week…
so hurry in today!

The soda kiln has been rebuilt. Brick by brick… with a nice curved arch.
Remember, the old kiln was suffering from a sagging arch, so it’s good to see it back in place. And so fresh & clean. At least for one last day. It will never be this clean again… the Lillstreet soda class is loading the kiln tomorrow night for the inaugural firing of the new soda kiln. Firing on Saturday… the new soda will be added Saturday night leaving it’s permanent mark on the fresh, clean bricks!

Well, it looks like they finished building the new soda kiln today at Lillstreet. Yeah!!! Huge thanks to Doug Jeppesen & Neil Estrick for leading the team to get the job done. As well as soda monitors Fred, Amanda, Adam & Sam. So nice to have anew kiln with a new arch. Remember my last soda kiln firing?… the last firing in the old kiln. You’ll see how the arch of the old kiln was nothing arch-like… it was almost straight across and not very safe! Here’s a little reminder…

So clean. So new.
Yep, a couple firings should take care of that!

Today they added the arch. The bricks are in and the wooden frame is gone!
If you recall the photos from my last firing in the old soda kiln, our “arch” was pretty much straight across. Good to see that this kiln is starting out with a pretty dramatic arch.

Thanks to Lillstreet Soda Monitor Amanda for sharing these photos on Facebook…
and for being part of the kiln rebuilding team. You guys are rockin’ it!!!