With a forecast for another cloudy day, it was a nice surprise
to start it off with some nice colors this morning!

A beautiful brick path… a wonderful collection made & installed over the years.
And perfect for another TEXTURE TUESDAY!
Thanks for sharing your bricks & your textures Gerry!

Homemade food always tastes better in handmade pottery…
even healthy salads with great colors!
Thanks for sharing Kristy!

Got a mug with a crack?… or a chunk of kiln “goo” in it?
Anything that doesn’t quite work as a functional mug nay more?!

Some creative garden friends of mine have started using their old mugs to grow succulents in them! You could plant them with pebbles in the bottom… or drill a hole through the bottom for drainage with a special drill bit for ceramics. Either way, a live plant can quote literally bring and old mug new life!!! Thanks for showing off your succulent garden Rosene & Gerry!

Let’s just say… not all textured slabs made it to becoming a mug
during the LILLSTREET THROWDOWN! Some didn’t quite survive.

But the clay did live to see another day… after all… “IT’S JUST CLAY!!!”

Another challenge accomplished… after just two hours, my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN‘ers all had fun sets of four handbuilt mugs!!! Each of them featuring fun textures & patterns from MKM Pottery Tools … and special congratulations to Emily for winning first place as a first-time handbuilder!!! I think she might be a prodigy… or a Throwdown Ringer???

Next up?… at the end of the class, they were faced with another challenge in another envelope. I gave them the chance to skip the task in the envelope, but if we opened the envelope they would all HAVE TO follow whatever was inside! They discussed the options, but in the end chose to open the envelope!!!

Turns out their next challenge is now to “color-ize” their mugs with colored slips or underglazes… to highlight the textures & patterns!!! They will bring them back to the next class all decorated… knowing that down the road they can only glaze them with clear glaze!!!

With only two hours to create their four “matching” handbuilt mugs, my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN‘ers were crazy busy working at tables all around the room. Some had more control of their process… while some were flying by the seat of heir pants while tackling their first ever handbuilding project!!! All in all, they were all quite impressive… even though they were approaching the task from several different directions! So much fun for ME to watch & “comment on” along the way!

A lot of texture rolling & pattern pressing happened in class last Thursday night for the LILLSTREET THROWDOWN. I gave them a task… and my MKM Pottery Tools hand rollers for the night! Some students had never really handbuilt before… but they were all eager to start rolling!!! Such great patterns… thank you MKM!!!

This week in my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN, we kicked off the class with a few more details about their weekly challenge. Four handbuilt mugs… while utilizing my collection of MKM Pottery Tools hand rollers! The goal of the challenge was four “matching” mugs that highlight the great textures they can make with these groovy texture tools! And you know how much I LOVE texture!!!