And a very good job by Grace… who assembled her collage out of magazine pictures
and then enlarged the image onto her canvas board, and painted the entire thing
with just primary colored acrylic paints! Nicely done Grace!!!

This week, my Summer Camp is Clay & Multimedia… which means we do a clay
project on Monday, and other art projects throughout the week. So my afternoon
group of campers have switched to a painting project. They’ve chosen photos from magazines and have been working to enlarge them & paint the picture on canvas boards. Some of them have breezed right through it… other have required a little more “assistance.”

And then there’s Emma… who effortlessly created her nautical masterpiece!
A little painting prodigy in the making.

It’s another week of summer camp… and the kids this morning were pressing leaves
into their clay, covering them with colored underglaze, and then pulling out the
leaves to reveal a wonderful “relief” of the leaf! These colorful “natural” slabs were
then formed into plates, platters, mugs & vases!

How can you not LOVE teaching Summer Camp…
when faces like these are looking back at you every day?!

As this week of camp continues… my morning Wheelthrowing Camp finished off
their stoneware pieces to get them into a bisque kiln. They trimmed, they stamped,
they carved, they added handles, they finished their pots. We then switched to
terra cotta and they found out it was a lot messier than stoneware! But still a lot of fun!

And who wears WHITE on terra cotta day?! I tried to warn them all ahead of time…
let’s just say, that outfit will never be white ever again!!!

My afternoon camp started working on color theory by painting their own color wheels.
With just the primary colors & white, they had to fill in the entire grid with their color
combinations. When they finish this part… the plan is that they’re going to recreate
the color wheel again but this time with collage pieces!

So my Wheelthrowing Camp is only for the morning session.
At 1:00pm, many of the kids go home, while others start the afternoon session.
This week, my afternoon session is Clay & Multimedia. Which basically means
we do a clay project on Monday, and then other random art projects throughout
the week. And if all goes as planned, they’ll have a fun time, make some great projects,
learn a little bit along the way… and take home all of their projects on Friday.
Including their terra cotta plaques we made today. Here’s a few in the works…

Today was the first day of another week of Summer Camp.
This time, my morning camp is Wheelthrowing with the kids. Too funny!

So something that adults sign up for and take a 10-week class, suddenly…
we expect these kids to “get it” in just five days! It will be a fast & focused week!
I do a couple quick demonstrations, they do some throwing with stoneware,
some trimming, some stamping (perhaps?), and those posts go right in the kiln.
Then we switch to terra cotta for some more throwing & finishing. A little hand building
on Thursday, as well as some underglaze. Then on Friday, their stoneware bisque comes
out of the kiln and they’ll do some glazing, as well as glazing their terra cotta pieces!
So like I said, there’s a LOT of work ahead of them… abd keeping it fun at the same time…

And so far… they’re off to a good start…

By the end of class, some were still a mess… and others were eager to wash their hands!

My “Wild Things” summer camp came to an end today… with the kids working frantically
to get all of the final details done on their animal sculptures. After clay masks on Monday,
and our Zoo Field Trip on Tuesday, we’ve been working on plaster sculptures the rest
of the week. With wire armatures and newspaper filler, they covered their sculptures
with plaster gauze and created these wonderful animals. We had quite the menagerie…
zebras, pegasuses, dragons, giraffes, monkeys, seals, mynah birds, parrots, lizards &
elephants all over the room! And bunch of adorable “Wild Things” making them!

Back from the Zoo… and filled with inspiration, creativity and spunk,
my campers were ready work on their animal sculptures. We’ve been building them
with wire armatures inside, wrapped with newspaper to fill them out, secured with
a layer of masking tape… and now they’re covering the sculptures with a “skin” of
plaster gauze. Kinda like paper maché, but easier & stronger!

When we returned from the Zoo, my kids were picked up and headed home.
I came back into Lillstreet only to find that the Teen Wheelthrowing Camp
was “showing off” a bit.. well, at least one of them! Logan, one of our long-time campers
who has grown-up with us over the years, was actually throwing his pots with his feet!
And Dave, the teacher for Teen Wheel was encouraging him… and everyone else looked
on in befuddled amazement. In the end, Logan did a great job. Maybe not the most
effective way to throw on a wheel… but entertaining nonetheless!!!