The kids are well on their way to finishing their placesettings. Most of them have finished their knives, forks & spoons. So today they’re working on additional pieces. More spoons, more forks, maybe a spork or two… salad tongs, napkin rings, copper bowls, etc.

So today there was more cutting…

And more pounding…

Somehow… again this year… the kids had the brilliant idea to have a chocolate chip cookie bake-off. So today after lunch I spread them out and made plates for each of the kids. We had eight different entries in the Chocolate Chip Cookie Bake-Off. So each plate had eight cookies with a corresponding number under each one. The instructions were that the “judges” had to taste each cookie and vote for their favorite. And they couldn’t vote for their own. No rules or parameters on “your favorite.” Just a quick vote. Each kid got to taste & vote, as well as Pam and I, and a few other neutral people I pulled into play our game. I had to teach last night so I didn’t have time to make cookies. Plus it would be awkward if I won my own contest. So instead I brought milk for everyone to cleanse their palates.

At the end of the contest, we had more than a few cookies left over. A couple huge plates of yummy fun that we shared with anyone who wanted some. We offered them to the parents as they picked up their kids. We offered them to other teachers. And we offered them to everyone in the ceramics department.

Notice that there are none of Cookie #8 in this pile.
It was the double chocolate cookie with marshmallows baked in. Yummy…
and the winner of the contest!!! Congratulations Madeline on your big win!!!
She’ll get the trophy plate when it comes out of the kiln on Friday.

Today my Summer Campers moved over to the Metals Department at Lillstreet. For two days we’ve worked with clay, and now we’re going to stat working with metals. They’re first task was to start designing their cutlery. Keeping their them in mind. We want them to make sure their cutlery pieces go along with the pieces they’ve already made in clay.

And then my co-teacher Pam Robinson started giving them a demonstration on how to cut their metal pieces. It’s a whole new set of skills & tools that they need to learn about. The kids quickly realize how much more fun it is to play in the clay!!!... shhh, don’t tell Pam that.

After the demo, the kids started cutting. Saw blades moving… up & down… up & down… and breaking!!! If you push too hard, give it a twist, or jerk the saw there’s a really good chance the blade will break. Understandable. But we want to encourage the kids to be careful and not break too many saw blades. So Pam & I make it a small contest… whoever breaks the fewest blades will win a prize that Pam made for them!!!

After they finish cutting their pieces, and filing, and sanding… it’s time to add some texture. So it’s back to demo time with Pam. Now encouraging the kids to make noise and pound hammers on metal. Whoo-hoo… it’s going to be a long & noisy afternoon with the kids!!!

And after a lot of hammering & broken saw blades, Pam is still smiling!!!

Look what just came out of the kiln!!!
The kids left camp with a layer of colored underglazes on their pieces. One of the Kid’s Monitors did a winderful job of glazing the pieces carefully for them. Tracey actually dipped them upside down in a bucket of clear glaze that had been thinned down. Brilliant!!! And now that the kid’s sets are done & complete, I thought I should share some quick phtoos before they go home!!! Check… and Check Mate.

Hockey : Two Teams… complete with the MVP Trophy and the Stanley Cup as King & Queen.

Cats vs. Dogs… the age old rivalry between canines & felines!
With bones as pawns for the Dogs,,, and mice as the pawns for the Cats.

A “Normal” Chess Set… he didn’t want no crazy theme!!!
He just wanted the Kings to be Kings and the Queens to be Queens. Simple. Done.

Normal People vs. Normal People… or something like that?!
So I’m not really sure why one line of pawn is boxes of golf balls? And the other line of pawns is basketball players, with only two having basketballs?! Doesn’t really matter though… Jane was fully committed & dedicated to her theme. It all made sense in her head and that’s what matters most.

Mario vs. Bowzer… or something like that?!
I know it’s a video game reference, but sadly I’m “too old” to be hip to the new games!

Godzilla vs. Monsterzilla… or something like that?
Again, the little guy was completely engaged in his project and could tell you what each piece was and why it made sense in his theme. And if he’s happy… so am I.

Today the kids came back to see how much their Monday plates had dried. Now they need to make the rest of their pieces AND glaze everything by the end of the day. Starting off with a discussion of how INCREDIBLY FRAGILE their plates are at this stage. And that if something breaks off now that they’re dry there is NO WAY to put it back together. I like to put a tiny bit of fear in them so they will work with a little extra care & patience. I tell them that if something breaks off at this point, it’s either gone for good or they need to make a replacement piece!!!

We only had one overnight casualty. One of the plates dried too fast and cracked right through the center. And then when I moved it to the table, the tail popped right off into my hand. Not a good sign. So I quickly made the “base” of another fish plate for her, and she did the detailing when she got in. Problem solved. Back up to speed. And that brass dragonscale tool that sits in my toolbox came in really handy to make some fish scales!!!

After they finished building the last of their pieces, they all began painting them with our Teacher’s Choice brand glazes. They’re a simple collection of colored glazes that work really well on these kids projects. It’s so much fun to see their monochromatic plates & cups come to life in color… knowing that they’ll get even better & more vibrant after they’re fired.

And “somehow”… I don’t know how, but “SOMEHOW”… the kids start a discussion and decide “all by themselves” that we should have a Chocolate Chip Cookie Bake-Off Contest tomorrow. Brilliant idea. On their part. And who am I to say no?!! I would never want to dash their dream & desires especially when there will be a lot of cookies in it for ME!!! So glad they thought of this idea all by themselves… with just a smidge of coaxing by me… a smidge… maybe a tiny bit… allegedly.

So if there’s going to be a contest… of course we need a BEST COOKIE TROPHY!!!
So I threw this little ditty together for the winner!

This week at Summer Camp we’re doing “Fire, Forge & Feast.”
It’s an ambitious camp where we have the kids make an entire placesetting on just five days! The first two days we work with clay, then two days in the Metals Department, then on Friday we pull it all together and have a huge FEAST for lunch. A full set with a consistent theme throughout.

So I started off this week with introductions & rules, as usual, and then we went into some basic handbuilding skills. As many of them professed to have good clay experience, I had a couple of them do the demo as I explained how & why they were doing each step.

And then the kids set off to start their own plates!!! Keeping their themes in mind. And determining how they were going to best represent their themes on a dinner plate, salad plate, bowl, platter, mug and cutlery handles.

By the end of the day, we had a table FULL of wonderful pieces. So much creativity. So much energy. So much fun to be the teacher who gets the kids to do all of this!!!

Best thank you gift from a Summer Camp kid ever! You know how I like my tie-dye!!
So it was a wonderful gift from one of my Chess Campers… Thank You Eli.

Chess Camp has just FLOWN by this week. The kids were so much fun this time around. A little bit younger than previous years… so it took me a little time acclimate. Their skill sets & attention-to-detail may not have been quite up to where their enthusiasm & energy wanted them to be. But it’s that “crude”  and adorable rawness to them that make each set so adorable!!!

We spent most of the day painting all of the pieces with colored underglazes. They will be glazed with clear glaze over the weekend by the studio monitors. A couple kids had a few last pieces to make… and a few others also found that they needed to make some “replacement” pieces as their originals broke during the painting process. It was a tough lesson to learn that scoring & slipping DOES indeed matter… and if you don’t to it well, your chess character’s head might just fall off!!!

So here are some of the chess sets at the end of the day. Painted and lined up… double-checking that they have all of the pieces they need to make a full set. Each one cuter than the next. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a photo of every set… but here’s a few of them…

So now they’re all done. The campers have had a VERY productive five days. So much fun playing with these talented kids. while they created these little “masterpieces.” Over the weekend, they will all get glazed with clear glaze and go into an electric kiln. The kids will need to come back in a few days to pick up their chess sets.

The goal for today was to “finish” building all of their chess pieces so that we can paint them with underglaze tomorrow. Most of the kids made it. A couple of them need to finish a couple more tomorrow morning. Deadline’s approaching… so tomorrow’s going to be a BUSY day!!!

It’s been a productive week so far at Summer Camp. My kids are each busy building a full chess set out of terra cotta clay. They’ve each developed their own themes and are building it piece by piece. But camp is not just clay… it’s also about cleaning and every other part of the process!

And for my camps, there are three simple rules…

Summer Camp Rule #1 : “Have fun.”
And it definitely looks like they are. You can see it on their faces, and in their work!

Summer Camp Rule #2 : “Your fun is not more important than anyone else’s fun.”
So there’s no teasing, nicknaming, bullying, acting up or anything else.

Score… slip… repeat.
Hopefully they’ve all learned some good handbuilding skills.
They’ll find out soon enough what happens as they dry if they have NOT scored & slipped!!!

They also needed to start painting their chess boards. Each chess board is 24″x 24″… which means each piece sits on a checkered section that is 3″ square.

Like I said… camp is not just about MAKING things, but also the other steps of the process. A tough lesson is reclaiming their dried clay. I keep telling them to watch out so their clay doesn’t dry too fast. To keep it covered with plastic and spray it once and awhile with water.  However, some of them don’t hear that warning… and we end up with some dry chunks of clay. So they then get to “volunteer” to pulverize the dry clay so we can reclaim it into useful slip. A little hard work might reinforce the lesson of “preserving” their wet usable clay.

At the end of the day, we clean up our class room. They kids are great about scraping & scrubbing the tables, sweeping the floor, cleaning all of their tools and making the room cleaner than it was when they came in for the morning.

Throughout the day, I also get to “enforce” my favorite of the rules…
Summer Camp Rule #3 : “Whatever mess you make, YOU will be cleaning up.”
So when there’s a mess on the floor by the sinks, the kids “volunteer” to be the ones to clean it up. They know the rules… and it’s all part of the process!