HAPPY MUGSHOT MONDAY… celebrating with this sweet little Summer Camper mug!!! Sure, a little rough around the edges, but it shows promise… and they were only 9-years old!!!

My newest mantra… “Paint your POTS, not your hands!!!”

This year at summer camp, the kids are decorating with colored slips on Fridays… instead of rushing through the process & glazing hot pots fresh from the bisque kiln on Friday. It makes for a much “calmer” Friday & gives the kids a bit more time to focus om making their pots a mini masterpiece!!! After they leave, their pots will be bisqued, glazed with clear, and fired again by Lillstreet “monitors” before the campers come back to pick-up their pots.

Summer Camp with a younger group : 8-10 year olds… wheelthrowing on Monday & Tuesday, trimming & handles on Wednesday, handbilding (sp) on Thursday… and then slip painting on Friday! This group was a lot of fun… especially on Thursday when we tackled textured mugs. They threw their own slabs by hand with no rolling pins or slab rollers! Then they pressed in a texture & constructed their own mugs all by themselves! Amazing work!

Not only did I have great kids making great pots this week at summer camp…
but I also had Eva who made me this amazing little origami dragon from a single sheet of paper!!

Another great week of Summer Camp done! This week I had 10-13 year olds throwing on the wheel… two groups, morning camp & afternoon camp. Lots of dirty hands, lots of pots, lots of giggles!

It was already Day Three of my Wheelthrowing Camp this week… and the kids are having a great time getting all gloopy & gloppy! And I must admit… I am too… as I LOVE SUMMER CAMP!!!

Today’s the day!!! My Summer Camp “tour of duty” begins today… and continues through Labor Day! This year I will be doing mostly wheelthrowing camps with the kids, as many of the extra-fun “specialty” camps were not offered this year at Lillstreet. We still have Chess Camp at the very end of summer, but sadly, no super huge sculptures this summer!!! mwah, mwah, mwah…

To finish off one of my favorite weeks of Summer Camp… I showed my kids how to do bubble glazing. And they LOVED IT!!! Such a fun way to top off an amazing week with a great group of kids! Most of them had never thrown on the wheel before. They struggled a bit on Monday, but with some practice they were making cute pots soon enough. They were all so focused, talented & entertaining. So helpful & willing to pitch-in all week long. They made such great progress… and bubble glazing was a great finale for them!

But the real quote of the week was from Luca at the end of Friday…
“The was the best week of my life.”

Another summer camp mishap… but they all learned another valuable lesson! This is what happens when someone doesn’t put the lid on correctly! Luckily, it’s just wax… and even better… it splattered so close to the floor drain!