I’m celebrating the FIRST DAY OF SPRING with a beautiful sunrise bike ride. Finally, some blue skies & colorful clouds to brighten my morning. I’m tired of gray… I’m tired of Winter… and I am fully embracing Spring!!!

Sure, the Winter class session may have ended… but this face will stick with me for awhile!!! Shannon made her first clay doughnut in class… almost real enough to eat!!!

Celebrating a little MUGSHOT MONDAY with this great mug collection… resting on their new display shelves. My friends Keith & Julie recently moved to Ohio and took plenty of my mugs with them! Too bad their new kitchen wasn’t quite “prepared”… so they added some shelves in all the right places!

Another large platter wheelthrowing demo… got a little makeover once I got it up to my studio. Just a couple stamps here & there. All made with one handmade stamp pressed in one-by-one-by-one…

Did a little fidgety-handbuilding today while I was subbing for two classes. It’s the last week of classes so there wasn’t a lot for me to “teach” them at this point. More chatting, facilitating & answering questions! I prefer hectic active classes… so I had to keep myself busy. Sure, they still need a bit of smoothing & refining… but these spoons are pretty cute so far!

I’ve always said that I have the BEST pottery students ever! So glad that my Throwdown Challengers had a great time playing my silly games & crazy contests! I know I had a blast “playing” with this great group. Thank You all for making my job so much fun… and for the “sweetest” THANK YOU ever!!!

At the end of our GREAT LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class, my students had “suffered” through so many challenges, competitions & games… and they finally threw it back at ME!!! Yes, there was one final challenge all for ME!!! Complete with my own “white envelope” with instructions inside…

Of course I said YES!!! You know how much I love a good challenge!!!

So I had to quickly set-up my wheel, get some tools, put some water in my bucket & wedge up a ball of clay. Then is was time to put the blindfold on… and tackle the “hump” of clay! Ten mini pots… that somehow had to be decorated & match… and along the way somehow they also had to get handles?!!!

Giddy-up!!!

Okay, so mini pots thrown… time to switch over to handles!
Decided the quickest route would be rolled coils stuck on!

Okay, so maybe not my finest work, but…
Once the cups were done, I got another white envelope… with another challenge & more instructions!

Finding it tough to assemble my teapot parts & pieces as everything is completely squishy… no need for slip apparently!!!

And there is was… the FINAL challenge of Season Five of our GREAT LILLSTREET THROWDOWN!!! So much fun for me… and I think my students had a great time too. We had a great group this season! Thanks to everyone for playing along with my crazy games!!!

Never one to back down from a challenge… I kinda felt obligated to make a clock for my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN as well. Sure, I coulda’ done a cartoon… but I felt this was more my style! The twist was that I used my student’s stamps that they made during a previous THROWDOWN challenge!!! They had no idea that I snuck them out of the bisque kiln & used them on my clock before I distributed them during the next class!!! So much fun to show it off during our final class! Fun clay clocks for everyone!!!

The final “Big Build Project” for the GREAT LILLSTREET THROWDOWN was to build a clock! Yes, remember when they chose different classic cartoons to base their clocks on??? Well, it’s been several weeks and they’ve all been working hard. Some made to the finish line and showed up with a complete glazed piece. Others didn’t quite pace themselves well enough and only had a bisqued clock. Either way… they were BRILLIANT!!!

Now I will admit that I know absolutely NOTHING about Pokemon… but we were all blown away by Autum’s Pokemon Clock!!! It was amazingly crafted on the outside. And then I was BLOWN AWAY when she opened it up to reveal another character inside… and figured out away for the lid to stand up on its own base!!! Needless to say… Autum won “first place” in the big clock challenge!!! And now I know that Pokemon Balls can open up…. who knew?!

Huge congrats to Claire for her big win last night during the conclusion of our GREAT LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class! We all had an amazing time… made some fantastic pieces… and played some crazy games!!! A huge Thank You to all my students who made Season Five a huge success!!!