Last week in my Advanced Wheelthrowing class, they decided that we should tackle Christmas Trees!!!… a little fun with Christmas in July!!! So we threw the trees on the wheel and then tried a few different surface decoration ideas on them… including a few with some thick white slip, and one with rhythmic chattering through white-over-green slip!

It was fun trying different techniques…
including these last four made by Darcy in class!

For some reason, a couple of the folks in my Advanced Wheelthrowng class are all about making holiday pieces in class?!… and you know I’m always up for a challenge. They want to get a head-start on them so that they’re ready for the holidays to come… instead of rushing last-minute & waiting for kiln firings at the end. So last week in class we tackled wheelthrown pumpkins… next up?… CHRISTMAS TREES!!!

All thrown… a very productive day!
Forty cylinders thrown to make forty mugs. The commission isn’t quite that large… but they will be soda-fired so I’m making a few “extras” in case some of them don’t turn out so well?! You know how soda-firing is kinda random… I can only “control” so much!

Back to making cylinders… back to making MUGS!!!
My favorite thing to make! Lucky for me, I’m working on a big commission project for a lot of specialty mugs! Here we go…

Another day of Wheelthrowing Camp today… with the kids throwing again on the wheel. Let’s just say that not all of the pots made it safely to the end! Like these sad little pots by Madelyn!

Just a few pots… trimmed, decorated, initialed & “coded” for my campers! Not bad for two days of throwing… as these two trays are just for my morning campers! My afternoon kids have different trays! These will all be bisqued quickly so the kids can glaze their pots on Friday morning!

Today my summer campers trimmed & decorated the pots that they had thrown on Monday & Tuesday… some carving, some stamping, some colored slips. A few campers even went one step further and added handles to make their first mugs!!

Summer Camp has been great so far this week. My campers have been throwing on the wheel, many for the first time ever! Some of them are struggling a bit, while others are killin’ it. But as long as they’re all having fun I think I’ve done my job!!! And from all of the laughter & giggles… I think we’re good!

So today was my first official day of Summer Camp this year! This week I’ve got wheelthrowing camps for morning & afternoons. They all get dirty & messy, but while they’re having fun in the mud… they also need to clean up their mess! So today I had two of them already on their hands & knees cleaning the floor. It’s all part of the process, right?!

Who even knew that the shelves “under” the wedging tables needed to be cleaned?… but they did!

So much fun… I LOVE Summer Camp!

It’s another Thursday… so another SURFACE DECORATION class tonight. And this is getting to be a little bit of a “habit”… but I made a bunch of trimmed & leatherhard bowls for my students to carve through tonight. Can’t wait to see what kind of magic they create this evening! Not so bad for throwing these bowls late last night, huh?!