And a huge THANK YOU to my amazing THROWDOWN class…
who got me this fantastic tie-dyed t-shirt as a “Thank You Gift.”

Well, actually they made it… with Monse designing the logo!
It says “Welcome To The Throwdown : Kiln or Be Kilned.” With a nod to my love of tie-dye, reality TV show “The Traitors”… and even some stamping around the tureen image! Monse even pulled one of my own favorite stamp patterns to create the design!!!

This class never ceased to amaze me… THANK YOU ALL!!!

And the nominees are…

After ten weeks of LILLSTREET THROWDOWN races, challenges, competitions & projects… they were all WINNERS in the end. We all had such a great time as points were accumulated all season long. And that journey definitely deserved RIBBONS FOR EVERYONE!!!

We had some great competitors, but in the end it was Katie in third place, Ruth in second place … and Sara as the BIG WINNER of Season Eight!!! Congrats to everyone for making this class so much fun… and more importantly, for entertaining ME every step of the way!!!

And our most recent film on the list… EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE. So many things, so many options… too many things, too many options!!! Monse did a great job in streamlining her thoughts & designs down to a few iconic images… in her amazing sketchbook. Unfortunately, the tureen with all of the iconic pieces applied had a little bit of a kiln “incident”… as there was large air bubble in the bottom that totally blew out the piece! She “saved” it for show purposes… but there is still no bottom!!! But the design concept, bowls, spoons & ladle were well formed. Such a shame it didn’t make it through!

So I wonder if Jack & Rose liked soup?… especially before ending up on that fateful door?! Here’s Sophie’s take on the classic TITANIC… which unfortunately did not make it into the kiln in time for our final class. It’s kinda brilliant though having the ship as the tureen… sitting on a plate complete with icebergs!!! The soup bowls have illustrations like drawing Jack did in the movie… that Sophie drew with underglaze pencils. The ladle has the “Heart Of The Ocean” necklace on it. And you can’t see it, but the bottom if the ships interior is glazed to look like the ocean water filling it in!!!

Another Shakespeare classic… kinda, in a way?!
A fun twist on the classic Romeo & Juliet” story… SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE featuring Gwyneth Paltrow & Ralph Fiennes. Nicole’s set features a tureen with a classic shape found in many of the hats & costumes of the movie… as well as finer details like the birds hand-drawn in each spoon referenced in “Romeo & Juliet” & mis-represented in Shakespeare in love… a nightingale, a lark, a rooster & an owl.

“Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”

And we weren’t sure what we were going to get from Carmina either. She chose to make her set out of terra cotta… and did most of her work on it away from others. Very few of us saw her work in progress. So the reveal of FORREST GUMP was amazing! Her tureen is based on a traditional Vietnamese vessel & her glaze colors go along with some of the retro colors from decades featured in the movie.

But the best part… the tray that is A BOX OF CHOCOLATES!!!

Of course there had to be a Meryl Streep classic somewhere on the list… and her we have Ruth’s take on OUT OF AFRICA. Complete with an elephant as the tureen & soup bowls depicting colorful scenes from the savannah. The most amazing part… the tureen ladle that also becomes the elephant’s trunk!!!

Helen took on a modern “western” classic with Kevin Costner… DANCES WITH WOLVES. Helen’s tureen has some great sgraffito carvings around the bands of color. And an amazing wolf on the top of the lid as the knob. The handles on the sides were buffalo… or “tatanka” as they call them in the movie. Her lid was glaze-fused for awhile… but eventually popped off. And unfortunately had one spoon that broke, and the replacement didn’t make it though the glaze kiln in time!t

Abena tackled another favorite movie musical… WEST SIDE STORY. She had some wonderful ideas for her tureen soup set. However, she met up with a lot of technical production issues along the way… ending with not getting her pieces fired on the final glaze kiln soon enough to show off in class. So many of her pieces are covered with a light layer of sprays clear glaze. There are a lot of textures, colors & imagery under the glaze layer. Shame that it doesn’t show up in the photos.

One of my all-time favorite movie musicals… OLIVER has great songs, cinematography & productions with “a cast of thousands.” Sara brought her movie to life by recreating the Artful Dodger’s ha as her soup tureen. The very top pf the tureen is a flat lid… and then the plate at the bottom becomes the “brim” of the top hat. Song lyrics on the plate tell you to “consider yourself” at home… one of the classic numbers! And her tiny little spoons with tiny little stamps are the cutest things ever!!!