Last night was only the second class of our new session of wheelthrowing classes at Lillstreet… and my students killed it when they made their first batch of mugs!!! Two classes and they’ve already made MUGS!!! And then we ended class with a little stamp-making too… so maybe their “next” mugs will have some stamped textures??? We can only hope, right?

We’re in the middle of the week of CHESS CAMP at Lillstreet. My summer campers have made a LOT of really cool chess pieces already to fill their themes. Today we started creating their chess boards… and then took a bit of a break after lunch for them to hone their skills.

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A huge Thank You to all of my students who made The First Annual LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class a success!!! I was so impressed by the group’s bonding, camaraderie & healthy competition. So helpful & supportive of each other along the way. Not to mention their creativity & determination with every project. Thanks to each of you for putting up with my crazy games & challenges. You guys ROCKED IT!!! Thanks for being such a good group. You were so much fun to “play with” each week… you made my job easy!

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So we’re almost halfway into The Great Lillstreet Throwdown!
We’ve been working hard & playing harder… with great challenges, fun races and a little friendly “trash-talking” along the way. Every class has been a lot of fun. Laughter. Screaming. Giggling. Causing a bit of a ruckus around the studio every Thursday night. Each challenge has been awarded points and we’re working our way to an eventual WINNER!!!

So here’s the game…
PICK THE WINNER of The Great Lillstreet Throwdown!!!
Who will win the challenges? Who will garner the most points?
Purely superficial fun based on their photos below… like a good Reality TV show…
just like how we choose our players in the Survivor Pool, right?
Making these crazy assumptions & predictions based on a gut feeling.

So here we go… my own cast of reality characters for your perusal… and voting.
Please add your guess in the Comments section!
And then as the class continues we can start showing you some Winners along the way!

Actual names have been altered for fun & confusion. Ha!!!

AW : ANNA WHEELIE – below on the left
CW : CLAYTINA WATERGIRL – below on the right… she’s really NOT a bucket…

CE : CLAY EAGERMAN – below on the left
DJ :  DEBBIE JIGGER – below on the right

IM : IZZY MUDMAKER – below on the left
JB :  JOE BOWL-A – below on the right

KB : KELLY BISQUE – below on the left
PB :  PEGGY BURNISH-SHINE – below on the right

PN : POTTERY NURTERER – below on the left
RB :  RICHY BENTONITE – below on the right

RJ : RY-RY JOSHBLUE – below on the left
SG :  SUSIE GREENWARE – below on the right

SL : SALLY LUSTER – below on the left
TCW :  TAY-TAY CLAY-WEDGER – below on the right

So again, here’s the game…
PICK THE WINNER of The Great Lillstreet Throwdown!!!
Just place your “votes” in the Comments section… and we’ll see how good your intuition was in a few more weeks when we “crown” the winner of the Great Lillstreet Throwdown!!!

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Another great way to brighten up an otherwise dreary day is with some of the fantastic kid’s art murals hanging on the walls at Lillstreet.

So much color.
So much uninhibited creativity.
So much fun.
A great contrast to the grayness outside!

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Porcelain vases glazed, wadded, loaded, soda-fired, cooling… and unloading tonight. I can’t wait to see how they turn out before I donate them all to the ArtReach Chicago Fundraiser. I just wish more of them could have made it into the soda kiln so I could have donated even more!!!

For more information about ArtReach and the charitable programs they provide for kids in Chicago… and especially their fundraiser event where you could get one of these vases… click here.

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CHESS CAMP at LILLSTREET  :  Monday, July 10 – Friday, July 14  :  9:00am-3:30pm

Are your kids looking for a fun Summer Camp for the week after 4th of July??
Well, we will once again tackling thematic Chess Sets with one of my favorite Summer Camps at Lillstreet Art Center. We’ll spend the week making thematic chess sets… handbuilt chess pieces with whatever theme the kids want!!! That’s a LOT of pieces to design & build… all building up to the big climax of actually playing chess with the complete set they’ve designed & built all by themselves! And they get to play with ME!!! How cool is that?!

Click here for more information or to register your kids!!! Only a few spots left!

This week we kicked-off the summer session of classes at Lillstreet with some more new OREO’s!!! I’m still a bit unsure of the “Thins”… you just need to eat twice as many, right?!!!

As for the coconut… tastier than I expected.
Although someone said it tasted like suntan lotion..
let’s just say that still didn’t stop us from finishing them!!!

One of my students has been away from Lillstreet for about three years. He finally made it back to pottery… and into my “Simply Soda” class. Tonight we were touring the soda kiln room looking at soda-fired examples on the shelves. When lo and behold… Peter found one of his own soda-fired mugs from YEARS ago!!! Apparently it has been “floating around” Lillstreet for years and tonight finally found its way home! A beautiful mug, complete with the prerequisite layers of dust!!! Crazy, right?!!!

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As posted on Facebook this morning…
Looks like one of my Facebook Fans will be joining my Beginning & Advanced Beginning Wheelthrowing Class tonight at Lillstreet. If she’s been a “fan” for seven years, I hope I don’t disappoint?! That’s a lot of pressure to live up to. I may need to step up my game a bit?… and bring a LOT of Oreo’s?!!!