We’ve already FIRE’ed… we’ve already FORGE’ed… so now it was time to FEAST!!! The last day of camp is a big potluck lunch where we all bring in food to share. The kids pulled it together and we had a wonderful FEAST to celebrate the last day of this Summer Camp. Well done kids!!! Thanks for a great week!

The last day of camp is also the day to award the prize for Best Cookie in the “annual” Chocolate Chip Cookie Bake-Off. Congratulations to Sam (and his Mom) for baking the cookies that got the most votes on Wednesday’s challenge. He gets the trophy plate… and we got a lot of yummy cookies!!!

After several productive days, my Summer Campers finally got see their thematic placesettings come together. The terra cotta came out of the kiln, we assembled their cutlery pieces and put it all together to great acclaim. They should all be very proud of themselves for a wonderful week of Summer Camp… and some wonderful dinnerware sets!!!

MADELINE’s placesetting

TULLIAH’s placesetting

 

 

LOUKAS’s placesetting

THEO’s placesetting

ZOE’s placesetting

ELIZA’s placesetting

DEIRDRE’s placesetting

ARIEL’s placesetting

ELENA’s placesetting

ELLIE’s placesetting

LILY’s placesetting

LYDIA’s placesetting

SAM’s placesetting

And I guess if something was destined to explode in the kiln…
what better than Sam’s VOLCANO PLATE?!!!

MIYA’s placesetting

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So much fun to see everything coming together. The clay handles the kids made on Monday & Tuesday are fired and out of the kiln. We’ve been inserting their metal forks, knives & spoons into them. So great to see how much work these kids have cranked out this week. We have a WONDERFUL group of kids this week. Which is perfect since this is the BEST Summer Camp week of all of them!!! Just sayin’… of course I may be a bit partial.

Some great new tools to “play with” in the Metals Department. And with some great instruction from Pam, we went relatively uninjured for the week. Good job Campers… thanks for paying attention & watching your fingers!!!

 

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With some basic metalsmithing skills under their belts, my Summer Campers continued to work on their thematic placesettings & cutlery. There was a lot of pounded, banging & hammering going on today, as well as some torch work for annealing the metal. Flat metal turned into textured, decorated and curved spoons, forks & bowls!

Annealing with torches… softening the metal for easier forming…

Drilling and riveting…

 

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Some wonderfully tasty treats showed up today for the “annual” Chocolate Chip Cookie Bake-Off. Some traditional. Some with fun ingredients. Some with marshmallows… my favorite! Everyone got a plate of “anonymous” cookies to vote for their favorite numbered cookie. We had seven different entries… as well as cold milk to cleanse the palate in between cookies! Sam’s cookie #6 won the contest!!!

And some kids even took it to another level… trying to win us over with WARM COOKIES!!!
Who doesn’t like hot cookies with their cold glass of milk?!!!

 

After two days of playing with clay, today we moved over to the Metals Department for the kids to start making their forks, knives & spoons! And my metals co-teachers are much more in their element now! Pam did a great job of teaching the kids how to work safely with the tools to form their thematic cutlery pieces.

Draw them out, cut them out, file, sand, texture, etc… a lot of banging & pounding!!!

While in the Metals Department, we also like to have a “contest” to see who breaks the fewest saw blades. We find that a little friendly competition makes them think a little bit more as they’ve working. Break the fewest saw blades and win the Metals Prize made by Pam!!!

The kids have been working hard building all of their terra cotta dinnerware pieces. Plates, bowls, platters, cups, handles, vases, etc. They’ve been having a great time, but deadlines are deadlines… and EVERYTHING needed to be built, done & painted with colored glaze by the end of camp. For tonight, everything goes into the kiln!

 

Here’s Pam looking not quite so confident or comfortable with her glazing skills?!

And Michelle painting her tiny watermelon… and her larger watermelon cup!

 

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Proof that sometimes metalsmiths DO indeed venture over to the “dirty side” of the building to touch some clay! Pam & Michelle got to play in the mud with the rest of the kids. It’s a “shame” they didn’t have any fun?!!!

 

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