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!

Okay, so since the pandemic changed the world… it also changed Lillstreet in many ways. Including a small little rule of not having food in the classrooms anymore. But they can’t really expect me to fully go cold turkey, right?! Crazy talk!!!

So we may have “smuggled in” a few contraband OREOs along the way with the code word being “yellow towel.” We gotta keep them hidden… cautiously sharing… and always cleaning up & hiding the evidence at the end of the night!

Another one of the benefits of Lillstreet postponing the start of our Winter session by a week… the overflowing buckets of reclaim clay from last session should be taken care of! Fresh new reclaimed clay for everyone!!! Hopefully.

And let me just say…
This pile of overflowing clay would NEVER have happened if my Summer Campers were still around! They love pushing it through the grate… breaking it down into smaller pieces as intended! This pile-up would never have happened in my camp!!!

With the Winter class session postponed for a week at Lillstreet Art Center, I know many students are missing their access to the pottery studio. But never fear… big things are happening while we wait it out. Many thanks to Bruce, Dave, the monitors and everyone else working at Lillstreet during the break to make things happen… like this BIG improvement!!!

For anyone who has taken a class in the new Wheel B room while there was a metalsmithing class going on next door… you’ll really appreciate this new solid wall with insulation all the way up to the ceiling BETWEEN the two rooms! Should make a big difference for everyone… and worth the wait!!!

So fun to have my potter-friend Mike Stumbras stop by my little Mug Sale today with some of his family! They got a quick tour of Lillstreet… and a couple new mugs… and I got a beautiful porcelain cup from Mikey! Lots of twists, slip trailing & gold lustre! If you’re not following Mike on Instagram… you definitely should be!!!

Beautiful pottery, incredible craftsmanship, historical references & plenty of videos & tutorials. Be sure to check him out. … @mikestumbras

Last week in my Intermediate Wheel class, we decided to tackle wheelthrown Christmas trees… as they seem to be all the rage on Instagram! So we started throwing and soon enough had a forest of groovy shapes & styles!!!

And here are my class demos… more trees & more styles to come…

So now the soda kiln is empty once more… although I do still have some cleaning to do! Ugh. Gotta scrape the shelves, re-kiln wash them, clean the fire box & tidy up the kiln room. Ahhh… the glamorous side of soda-firing!

Another beautiful flower from the rooftop of Lillstreet… and one last rooftop lunch with my Summer Campers! They’re in the final stretch of painting & finishing all of their chess pieces! Nearing the end of another wonderful summer of teaching & playing with the kids… making cool art projects along the way!

Enjoying the flowers, the beautiful weather and one of the last afternoons sitting on the Lillstreet Rooftop having a fun lunch with my Summer Campers. We’re in the middle of CHESS CAMP… which is also my last camp of the summer. Checkmate!

Starting out the morning with clean reclaim buckets… as Nate volunteered to press all of the dried reclaim terra cotta through the grate on top… as intended. I love when my Summer Campers just start volunteering to do projects around the studio making it a better place for everyone. As though they’re part of the community. Taking one for the team. Now if we could just get some more of the adult students to follow Nate’s lead… wouldn’t THAT be great?!