Tonight’s syllabus line-up for my class demos was a little aggressive.
A lot of things to cover in a short mount of time. A lot to do. A lot for them to take in.
Trying not to overwhelm my Beginners, but still keep my returning students engaged.
I think they doubted that I could get it all squeezed in… but I did!!!

Demo #1 – We started with another bowl demo. It was much the same as last week’s bowl demo. Just one more. It wasn’t until I got home and posted the photos that I realized that I had forgotten to do the one demo shape that my student Dave had requested. Shoot. So tonight I corrected that oversight and made one more bowl. With one more design. This time with a split rim and some “lotus” shaped alterations.

Demo #2 – Next, I did a plate & platter throwing demo. I showed them how easy it is to throw a plate… basically a very wide cylinder, with the sides flared out. Then I explained that the slow drying to leather-hard and trimming is the tough part of the process.

Demo #3 – Next up, I showed them how to convert a normal bowl into a pedestal bowl. First I trimmed the bottom of the bowl to a smooth, “domed” bowl bottom. And then I scored & slipped a ball of clay onto the top of the “dome” bottom. A quick centering of that ball of clay, and a quick thrown cylinder, collar, shape, groove lines, and voila’…

When you flip it over… pedestal bowl.

Demo #4 – The next bowl conversion was a demo on how I turn them into berry bowls. And what better way than with power tools!!! I brought my drill in and we made some holes the easy way.

And oh, but wait there’s more… we ALSO covered basic glazing techniques!
Demo #5 – Yes, we squeezed in a full glaze demo… starting with waxing the bottoms, all the way to dipping, drying, cleaning, finishing and putting them onto the glaze cart for firing.

So after a very fast-pace two hours, we had completed our demos, fully discussed the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, the Beatles 50th Special, and still had over an hour for all my students to get some work done. And here’s what I got done…