My pumpkin patch is quickly coming to life! Some of them have gotten a splash of color… while some are staying a bit more “natural.” Always fun to see these little guys smiling back at you in the studio!

So they may be food-safe & dishwasher-safe… but apparently NOT gravity-safe!!! Looks like someone up north will be missing their favorite ice cream bowl for awhile… as THIS is not going to hold much anymore. No worries. Remember… it’s JUST CLAY Kristy!!!

On a quick side note…
Look how nicely thin & even those wheelthrown walls are on that bowl!… just sayin’…

Looks like Jan is enjoying her morning with a mug of coffee & houseplants in some fine stamped & soda-fired pottery! What a nice way to start the day! Thanks for sharing your morning Jan… and one of the “special” textured slab mugs in the bottom left corner.

Reminder to self… gotta make more of these!!!

One of the many downsides to the whole pandemic thing… we can’t share OREO cookies & yummies in classes anymore! So while I’m positive the OREO shareholder profits have dropped dramatically, I also find that I need to tackle new OREO products like this by myself.

I mean MORE for me…
while taking one for the team & keeping everyone safe! Burp…

As part of my time at Summer Camp, I find it important to teach the kids more than just how to make a projects or two. There are so many opportunities to share life lessons & more. So I find it a great chance & challenge to teach the kids about some famous artists & art history along the way… making it a “game” so they frequently don’t even realize it’s happening!!!

In fact, at the end of the week… we did a “socially-distant” game of MEMORY with the kids flipping over the cards to match up the artists… not the images… as most of the artists had two different artworks that they memorized. So they had to match the artist by name… with a lot of hand sanitizer in between turns flipping cards!!!! Good thing my flash cards are laminated!!!

So here’s a quick overview “POP QUIZ” of some of the artists & sculptors that my Summer Campers learned this summer.

HOW MANY OF THEM CAN YOU NAME??? First & last names please…

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So?… how many did YOU get right?!
Without the benefit of GOOGLE… or looking them up somewhere?
Not as easy as you would think, right?

But now many of my Summer Campers know a lot more artists than YOU!!!

My final week of camp… sadly, as all good things must come to an end!
But in one way or another… virtual or on-site.. the kids are going back to school soon.

So this was my final week of camp – another week of Wheelthrowing!
And by this time, several of them had already done a Wheelthrowing Camp over the summer, so it was a little easier for everyone. And they made some great little pots!

And then there was Greta, who asked if she could layer two different slip colors… and then carve through them! Of course I said YES!!! So she put down a layer of green slip, and then covered it with white slip. We tried to “quick dry” it a bit. And then she started carving through to reveal the color and the clay body below! I love when kids go a bit further with their projects… MORE IS MORE!!!

Even with kids!!!

And with that… the end of my Summer Camp 2020!

So much fun playing with all of the kids this Summer. I think it was so good for all of us to be able to work together face-to-face… errr, mask-to-mask… after so long being quarantined and sheltering-at-home. I know the parents were so thankful that we were there to teach the kids… and to give them an option to get them out of the house! Let alone, give the kids something fin to do this Summer. As practically everything else had been cancelled due to Covid-19.

Crazy cool clouds this morning flying low on the horizon….
and did I mention “cool”?… err, I mean COLD!!!

It was another unseasonably cold morning requiring lots of layers & gloves. It’s far too soon to be seeing my breath while I ride! Eventually the clouds dispersed, yet I’m pretty sure I didn’t want be under that stormy cloud across the lake in Michigan!

Well, somehow it’s already October 1st… and it looks like the Ghouls are making their way out! My friend Beckie pulled out her Ghoul Collection to start the festive mood all over her home. Werewolves, witches & bats… oh my!

Makes me think that I need to pull together a quick online Facebooks sale to offer up more Halloween Ghouls… including pumpkins, bats, spiders, werewolves and this year’s addition to the collection… Dia de los Muertos Sugar Skulls!!! More info to come…

To kick-off Chess Camp Week, we have a discussion about the chess set, playing chess and how we’ll be making a full set of chess pieces in one week! And that they need to come up with a theme for their set… who is battling who???

We then do some basic handbuilding demos… score, slip, attach, repeat!!! And that everything thicker than their pinky has to be hollow! And that any mess they make, they need to clean up…. also know as Gary’s Summer Camp Rule #3!

And then the fun begins… lots of handbuilding, lots of pieces!!!

While they’re building all of their chess pieces, we also start working on painting their chess boards. We use a large sheet of wood so they can draw out their grid and paint it all with acrylic paint. We do it in stages, one color at a time… letting the first color dry overnight before tackling the second color.

Once we finish making all of the chess pieces, we started painting all of them with colorful underglazes. Once they’re done painting, their pieces will be glazed by one of our Lillstreet Monitors with a clear glaze to make the colors a bit more vibrant & colorful.

As they’re painting, we do occasionally have some “breakage” along the way… typically where there was not any scoring & slipping. I try to tell them that they will fall apart if they’re not careful… but sometimes it takes a bit of breakage to prove the point. Luckily, they have time to build a few back-up pieces! And if you look closely, sometimes there’s no scoring & slipping to be seen… even though the kids “profess” that they did score & slip!!! But the evidence shows otherwise!

So here are a few of our “finished” sets…
drying and ready to be glazed with clear glaze and fired!
Sadly, we were running so close to the deadline on Friday, that I didn’t get a chance to get photos of all the sets. We were still building a few “replacement” pieces & painting with underglaze as the parents were arriving to pick up their kids!!!

THE SOLAR SYSTEM
With many of the planets represented… including a “lot” of Mercury’s as pawns???

COMIC BOOK SUPERHEROES
Sometimes the themes aren’t so apparent… but as long as the kids LOVE them, I’m okay with it! Like this one… if you look closely, there are some “logos” of the superheroes… and then birds are supposed to be Robins!… get it???

CATS VS. DOGS
Complete with fire hydrant & mouse pawns!

HATS
Yes, a bit of an “odd” theme… but he was excited about it. And had a perfect plan to make it all happen. Even when I made suggestions… he had a great rationale as to why he wanted it THIS way! So he made it his own way… which he loved, as he could “see the vision” even if I struggled a bit.

SOME SORT OF VIDEO GAME
Yes, frequently the kids want to make their theme based on a video game. And since I don’t do video games, I’m at a loss for words & ideas! Again… as long as he knew what he was making and had a good plan… I’m in!

And as part of Summer Camp Rule #3…
We need to make sure the kids lift by the sides of the jars of underglaze… or at least make sure that they lids are screwed on really tight. Because if we don’t… THIS happens!!! Luckily, the kids are ready to do the cleaning. It’s all part of “the fun” of Summer Camp with Gary!!!

Today I did a bit of stamping & detailing the class demo bowls I made Tuesday night with my Beginning Wheel students. A bit of stamping, some groves from a wooden tool, or even some lines from chopsticks! Each one done by hand one impression after another.

So now I’ve got a lot of trimming to do after these dry a bit more to leatherhard. My goal is get them all trimmed, dried & bisqued so that I can bring them back to part of my glazing demo for my same group of Beginners!