And oh, but wait there’s more… SO MUCH MORE!!!
Or would that be MORE-eo?!!!

Not only did I get Christine’s Chicago flag flowerpot as part of our trading game… l ALSO got this amazing piece that she made as a surprise gift for me!!! Christine has been taken several of my classes and knows my penchant for OREOs firsthand. So she knew that this would be the PERFECT gift for me. And apparently, there was an all-on covert operation going on behind-the-scenes at Lillstreet to get it through all of the firings without me seeing it (thank you Dave – her cohort in crime!) Such an AMAZING way to end our session… with this AMAZING OREO PLANTER.

And don’t hate… but this is only Christine’s second handbuilding project ever!.. yes, she’s one of “those” people!!! I will do a post soon that show’s her step-by-step process in building this masterpiece!!!

After last night’s “exchanging-trading-stealing” game with my Intermediate class, I walked away with this SWEETIE of a flowerpot Christine! She’s been working a lot with terra cotta, white underglaze backgrounds & detailed paintings with colored underglaze. This one commemorates the Chicago flag & Lillstreet 2021. Great class… great planter… great souvenir of our class!!!

Tonight is the final class of our Monday Intermediate Wheelthrowing class. As with most of my classes, I like to do a little “trading-exchanging-stealing” game with my students. To celebrate Spring, the category for tonight is a wheelthrown flower pot with a plant growing inside. This is my entry in the game… blooming right on schedule!

FYI: We were supposed to end last week which would have been perfect for St. Patrick’s Day… but we got postponed a week do to the snowstorms that shut-down Lillstreet for two days! So we missed the holiday, but now they get flowers! HA!!!

Here’s a quick glimpse at some of my new “handbuilt-wheelthrown-combo” mugs… fresh from the soda kiln! I did a couple demos for my classes this session that “sparked” my need to make more of these textured mugs! Sure, some of them are a bit larger than maybe they should be… sometimes a class demo can get a little out of control. But I am loving how these turned out… so I’m sure I’ll be making another batch or five!

You gotta love some free pottery! Especially fun on this cool weathered window ledge in the back alley behind Lillstreet Art Center. An ever-changing assortment of seconds, demos & cast-offs from some of the potters & students at Lillstreet. It’s “grab-n-go” fun for everyone!!!

Conveniently, two of my “original” class demo pieces came out of the cone 10 reduction kiln too! Each of these used the crackled slip technique – this time with black slip on porcelain. One of them I left white, the other one I colored the porcelain with ivy green mason stain. A thin spray of clear glaze gives them a finished shine!

Fresh from the soda kiln… my first batch of crackled slip pots!!! I wasn’t totally sure how these were going to turn out as they’re a brand new technique for me! If you recall, it’s colored slip mixed with sodium silicate which crackles when you throw & bulge it out from the inside. They’re a little rustic & crunchy… but I guess that’s the point, right?

I will say they’re growing on me…

Last night we unloaded the soda kiln, cleaned, scraped, etc… and then took some time to admire our newest treasures! My students were excited to see their new soda-fired pieces – and the randomness that happens during the firing! There were some pleasant surprises… and some not-so-pleasant surprises! But here are just a few of the pieces that came out of the kiln last night. Kudos to my students on their beautiful pots!!!

After they had all the FUN of unloading their newly soda-fired treasures… they also got to experience the “FUN” of cleaning the kiln, scraping & kiln washing the shelves, and making the kiln room better than we found it – ready for the next loading team to come in. So they learned a lot in this workshop… and they also got to participate in this sweaty GLAMOROUS side of soda-firing!!!