So we’re in the third week of our new Spring Classes at Lillstreet Art Center.
And my “beginners” are progressing nicely. They’ve tackled the basics of wedging
and centering, basic cylinders and trimming. So tonight we pushed on a little further.
With their new “cylinders with shape,” we trimmed and then learned how to pull
and add handles to make mugs. They’re first mugs ever!!! And it’s only Week Three!

Plus, you know I like stamps… so why not encourage my students to make their own?!
And they did… we sat around the table and discussed stamps, textures, patterns and the
importance of “making their own mark” in the pottery. More fun to come once they’re bisqued.

And snacks… did I mention snacks? We may not have the professional pastry chefs
this session, but we do have some fine snack-makers! Last week we had some brownies
with cheesecake & peanut butter chunks in it from Hanna, plus a wonderful bag of
Garrett’s Chicago Mix Popcorn! My favorite… and SO addicting!!! Tonight we had a
wonderful Strawberry Margarita Frozen Pie Concoction from Sido & Will. So in between
making mugs & stamps… there’s always time for a few snacks!!!

So tonight was the first night of the new Spring Session at Lillstreet Art Center.
I’ve got another great group of wheelthrowing beginners… and some returning students!
Sadly, not a single pastry chef in the bunch. I think I got spoiled last session with so many
great treats every week. I threw out the “treats challenge” tonight…
we’ll see if they got the hint.

Oh, but wait… mid-way through class, Sido “ratted-out” her friend Cate by telling me that
Cate’s first job was making French pastries. Wait?… back it up. Okay, so maybe she’s not a
“working chef”… but who cares if she can make good treats? Sido told me all about some
incredibly decadent chocolate layer cake concoction that Cate has made before. Yummy…
Something about chocolate cake, chocolate cheesecake, chocolate mouse, caramel,
hazelnuts, cake, more layers, more chocolate, ganache, more mousse, more, more, more…
all wrapped in chocolate ganache and coated with some kind of yumminess crumble.

I’m in.
Maybe I need to be less subtle next week?…

Hundreds of Empty Bowls are up for grabs this Friday at “Empty Bowls.”
With handmade bowls being donated by students, teachers, studio members
and more, this annual event is sure to be a success again this year! I will be pulling
together a selection of my own bowls to donate towards the cause tomorrow.
So plan on stopping by Lillstreet Art Center this Friday night. Look through
hundreds of bowls, choose your favorites, buy them and fill them with soup!
It’s that easy… doing good for the hungry all around Chicago.

“EMPTY BOWLS” at Lillstreet Art Center
4401 North Ravenswood, at Montrose, Chicago, Illinois 60640
Friday, March 25, 2011, 5-9pm

Tonight was the final potluck celebration for my Beginning Wheel class.
Yes, after 10-weeks of clay fun, my beginners have all progressed quite nicely
and are now creating their own pots. We celebrated with a mug exchange… where
each student brought in a mug they had made and we did an “White Elephant” type
exchange game. So everyone who brought a mug went home with someone else’s mug!
Great fun… with a lot of sharing, encouragement & sharing!

But then… the highlight of the night???… a LOT of great food!!!
Yes, after weeks of some of the best class treats ever, this potluck did not fall short.
With pasta, spinach salad, homemade guacamole, chips, salsa, brownies, cookies,
caprese salad, scalloped potatoes, fresh fruit, Olivia’s sinful chocolate fudge creations
and possibly the best pasta we’ve ever had at a potluck. Yep, chef #1 brought in a dish
of whole wheat pasta with a pumpkin, goat cheese & sage sauce with spicy andouille sausage!

And what better end to the night than a slice of my homemade vanilla cheesecake
literally dripping in caramel sauce?! I’m just saying…

Yesterday was the Spring Open House at Lillstreet Art Center.
As a resident studio artist, we’re kind of “expected” to be there. Which is fine by me
as it’s also a great chance to have people stop by, see me working and hopefully they’ll
become a customer or student down the road. So there I was, working on a few projects…
finishing up my lidded jar class demo piece, and the extra “lid” which is now a small
dipping bowl… and throwing small plates for the new berry bowls.

It’s a long day of greeting people…
“Welcome, let me know if you have any questions…”
“Welcome, let me know if you have any questions…”
“Welcome, let me know if you have any questions…”
Repeatedly. Over & over. Until, imagine my surprise, when my parents turn the corner
and I throw them the same stock response… and then realize it’s them! They had read
on the blog that it was the Open House and they decided to come down to visit and
surprise me… and they did! So they hung out, visited a few studios including metalsmith
Rebecca Zemans who they met a coiple years ago as my art fair booth neighbor in Hinsdale!

And then… when the day was over, we decided to go out for dinner. I think it might have been
their plan all along to go to Rose Angeli’s?! I think the “surprise studio visit” may have been a
good “means-to-an-end” for us all to get a great meal?! Which I’m totally fine with as you know
I LOVE Rose Angeli’s!!! And we did have an incredible meal… I had some Chicken Vesuvio
filled ravioli with parmesan cheese & lemon cream sauce concoction YUMMY!!! – and we
shared three desserts!!! Bread pudding with pools of hot caramel sauce, chocolate & peanut
butter ice cream, and a hot chocolate fondue pot! Plus some quality time to get caught up
on  a bunch of stuff. Including all of the craziness going on at Lillstreet these days!

Holiday ornament batch #2 is now assembled, stamped, textured,
slip painted… and drying overnight!

New berry bowls are stamped, trimmed, hole-punched… and drying overnight!

Studio cleaned, organized, floors washed… and drying overnight!

Tomorrow…
The Lillstreet Art Center Spring Open House from 12:00pm-5:00pm.
Everything should be done, clean & dry by then. So stop by, say hello, see a lot
of great art, tour the facilities and participate in some free workshops!
I will be there all day working on some new pieces… Studio 205 West.

The Spring Session of pottery classes will being at Lillstreet Art Center in just two weeks.
I checked in tonight and found out there are only five spaces left in my class. Five!!!
Sign up as soon as you can… no one likes to be on the waiting list!

Beginning & Advanced Beginning Wheelthrowing… with me!
Tuesday evenings from 7:00pm-10:00pm.
10-week session beginning on March 29th, 2011
Register online at www.Lillstreet.com

Tonight was Week #8 of my 10-week Beginning Wheelthrowing class.
And so far, this class has been one of the “sweetest” ones yet!
With three pastry chefs… and plenty of others joining in the fun, we’ve been
having great snacks every week. And tonight was no exception. We had a lot
of topics to cover in class, but everyone was more interested in the treats!

So, Olivia decided to make treats tonight – and they were FANTASTIC!!!
With her adorable Irish accent, Olivia coquettishly wouldn’t tell us what was in them,
other than chocolate, fruit & nuts. It was incredible. And I had to “make sure”
several times! It was a heavenly concoction of fudgey chocolate, pecans,
raisins, sugar, caramel and “some secret stuff.” After taste-testing it repeatedly,
I think the secret ingredient was some sort of cookie. Someone said “digestables”?
Olivia did say that there was no baking involved… which is always good.
And I told her she can bring them again ANY time!!!

Even the pastry chefs were impressed!

Last night in class, in between the sweets, we talked about surface decoration
and how my students can turn their own “plain” pots into very special pots!!!
We talked about trying a bunch of techniques, finding the one they love the
most – and then exploiting i doing as much as they can with it. So during class,
I started each of the demo bowls, but quickly found out there was not going to be
enough time to finish the bowls during class. So I finished them tonight in the
studio. And now they’re drying overnight. Tomorrow I’ll clean them up a bit,
and brush off all of the little burrs & crumbles on the pots!

First I did a quick demo on basic stamping… my favorite which they expected…

And then we talked more about slip and how you can put it on with a more
“painterly” technique. So I put on a layer of white slip, and then did some freehand
swirls with green slip. I hope my students liked it… when I came back to it tonight
I realized that I didn’t like it all that much. So I carved through it tonight.
Still not sure if I like it any better than just the slip?! We’ll see…

Then we moved on to carving, and we discussed the work of my friend Amy Higgason.
She stopped by last session for a class demo, and some of my students were there for
that. Unfortunately, Amy wasn’t in town last night – so I had to do my best to attempt
to carve the pot… in something slightly similar to Amy’s beautiful style. One of Amy’s
“disciples” from her demo last session was there as well… and Pam was excited to show
my class one of her pieces that she was currently carving ala Amy Higgason!!!

The next bowl was carved again.. and then we added sprigs. Another Amy trick!
Amy does this incredible work, and I hope she doesn’t mind that I tried to emulate
her style for the benefit of my class. I know they LOVED seeing the demo again!
Plus, one of my concave stamps worked perfectly as a sprig mold.

One more bowl… what to do?… what to do?…
So the last bowl is surprisingly plain & smooth on the outside… let’s work inside!

So I covered the inside of the bowl I covered with a layer of black slip. And then began
a discussion of sgraffito with my class. I started to carve through, but only did a couple
swipes – before I realized that I needed to focus a bit more on my own… and my students
needed to get back to their own bowl making!!!