You know you’re “in for a day” when it starts like this!
Sure, I would love to say it was one of my Summer Campers who spilled the bucket of slip.

But it wasn’t.

It was just me rushing around this morning trying to gather all of my supplies for the last day of this week’s camp. WHOOPS!!! Luckily, I scooped it all up & the kids used it anyway… and were none the wiser!!!

This may look like a pile of garbage to some… but for my Summer Campers this week it is a pile of POTENTIAL!!! Another week of my “large sculptures camp” and the kids started today to work their “sculptural magic” with these empty boxes! More to come…

After they knocked out the lidded jar project, I knew they would be up for an even bigger & better challenge! So I pulled out the blindfolds (and towels?) and I challenged Summer Campers last week to wheelthrowing while blindfolded. I think they were a little anxious at first, but quickly realized it’s not as hard as it sounded. As long as you take it step-by-step, you realize that you can throw just my touch & muscle-memory. And they all did a GREAT job… and had so much fun that they asked if they could do it AGAIN!!!

Of course I said YES!!!

Last week at Summer Camp I had a group of teenagers. All of them had wheelthrown at last once before… so I knew it was going to be a fun week. They re-learned & practiced throwing on Monday & Tuesday, trimmed & decorated on Wednesday. But it was Thursday when I challenged them to making lidded jars! Yep, full-on lidded jars… complete with caliper-measured lids AND throwing off-the-hump. And they totally rocked it out!!!

This week I’m teaching a Wheelthrowing Summer Camp with a bunch of teenage girls! They’re all doing a great job & have already made a LOT of pots!!! Not bad for two days of camp… for today we switch to trimming, handles & detailing… and editing their “collections” keeping only the “good” ones! And who knows… there may even be a stamp or two used tomorrow?!

You know I loves me some fun tie-dye… but this is actually some colored splatters of glaze on the countertop before my Summer Camp kids cleaned it up!!!

One of my favorites from this week of Summer Camp…
Henry’s handbuilt fish mug… and of course, it’s a Pirate Fish with an eye-patch, right?!

Yeah… I don’t get it either… but its ADORABLE… and Henry was so excited about it!!!

I’ve always said that I kind of enjoy waxing the bottoms of pots… it’s the actual glazing part that I’m not a huge fan of… HA!!! So it wasn’t so painful yesterday during Summer Camp when I waxed all of the bottoms of the kids’ wheelthrown pots… while they were busy glazing their terra cotta handbuilt mugs! This table full is just the morning camp… and then I got to do it again for the afternoon camp kids too!!! Not too shabby for just two days of wheelthrowing, huh?

And why stop with a clean floor?…
My Summer Campers also volunteered to wash their ware boards both front & back before putting them away for the day.

Now if only we could get some of the adult pottery students to follow the kid’s lead… cleaning floors, cleaning wareboards… dare to dream, right???

Summer Camp is the best… especially when you have a great group of kids for the week! And quick enough they’ve all realized that I’m not kidding with Gary’s Summer Camp Rule #3… “Whatever mess you make, you WILL be cleaning up!” And they’ve been doing a great job with keeping the room clean at the end of the day… and smiling… and laughing… and helping each other… even though we’ve already had two spilled water buckets this week!

Everyone grab a sponge!!!