Yesterday, one of my Summer Campers was so focused on finishing her wheelthrowing project, that she brought it upstairs to the rooftop to finish it during our lunch break. So while the other kids entertained themselves & played games… a lot of colored slip painting was happening to make her new ramen bowl more “authentic” with a branch of cherry blossoms painted on the side.

Getting dirty can be fun…
another great day of Summer Camp!
It’s a shame they’re not having more fun…

Well, today was my first day of Summer Camp at Lillstreet Art Center. And my wheelthrowing campers are well under way, making pots & having fun… and especially succeeding with Gary’s Camp Rule #3 : “Whatever mess you make, you WILL be cleaning up.”

Now if we could just get the adult students to follow that same rule with such enthusiasm?!

And speaking of handmade birdhouses… I saw this wonderful one downstairs on the Kidstreet shelves. A sad little monster still sitting down there from last Summer. It’s one of the clay pieces we made in my Sculpture Camp last summer… so sad that it’s sitting down there on the shelves unclaimed. Who knows… he “might” just need to come home with me at some point!

Another one of the benefits of Lillstreet postponing the start of our Winter session by a week… the overflowing buckets of reclaim clay from last session should be taken care of! Fresh new reclaimed clay for everyone!!! Hopefully.

And let me just say…
This pile of overflowing clay would NEVER have happened if my Summer Campers were still around! They love pushing it through the grate… breaking it down into smaller pieces as intended! This pile-up would never have happened in my camp!!!

So I did a whole lot of laundry this morning… and after ten weeks of Summer Camp… I realized that I have a LOT of tie-dyed t-shirts!!! MORE IS MORE… and it apparently applies to tie-dye too, right?!

Another beautiful flower from the rooftop of Lillstreet… and one last rooftop lunch with my Summer Campers! They’re in the final stretch of painting & finishing all of their chess pieces! Nearing the end of another wonderful summer of teaching & playing with the kids… making cool art projects along the way!

Moving forward in CHESS CAMP… taking a break from making chess pieces to painting the boards for them to play on. First side of the checkerboards… getting started… and hoping to clean those lines up a bit with the second overlapping color!

Hard to believe that we’re already in the last week of Summer Camp… ending on a high note with my favorite CHESS CAMP!!! With each kid making their own thematic chess set out of terra cotta! Lots of parts… lots of pieces… and hopefully a LOT of “scoring & slipping”. If not, we’re going to be in a LOT of trouble as these pieces start to dry!

Starting out the morning with clean reclaim buckets… as Nate volunteered to press all of the dried reclaim terra cotta through the grate on top… as intended. I love when my Summer Campers just start volunteering to do projects around the studio making it a better place for everyone. As though they’re part of the community. Taking one for the team. Now if we could just get some more of the adult students to follow Nate’s lead… wouldn’t THAT be great?!