As I turned around and had almost made it home,
the clouds began to scatter and sweep across the sky with an intriguing assortment of pastel sunrise colors.

With the recent time change, my sunrise may have been an hour later… but it also seemed to last longer?! Maybe it was just the low-flying clouds… but I’m blaming the time change!

With a sudden warm-up, this morning was kind of a slushy sunrise morning. Lots of puddles. Lots of ponds. Lots of squishy mud to get the right vantage point. Good thing the bike path is pretty clear… except for the rivers of melting snow!

With a bit of a warm-up today, I felt somehow oddly “obligated” to take advantage of it and go for an early morning bike ride. It’s been far too long. Sunrise… oh, how I’ve missed you!

Bowls are trimmed… detailed… and drying… and “arranged.”

And I still love the shapes & patterns they create when they’re set together as a group. Reminds me of this sort of traditional Arabic or Moroccan geometric pattern.

Not quite so obvious from the side…

Who knew it was a holiday???… I would have celebrated with another package of cookies! Although Imm sure I have had MORE than my share lately… and that’s got to stop!!!

Apparently today is National Oreo Day to celebrate the cookie originally be released back in 1912. Who knew???

So I got my first batch of test tiles back from the cone 10 firing.
I think there are a few really nice results here… and now I can’t wait to see the cone 6 versions. Remember, the glaze recipes are designed for cone 6 – these might just be a “bonus” if the same glaze works well in cone 10 reduction too!!!

And a little bit closer… not a fan of the crazing. Hope that’s gone in cone 6…

For our “sugar fix” at last night’s class, I was surprised to find flavored Chips Ahoy cookies?! Who knew? So we tried Root Beer Float & Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream flavors.

“Should have stuck with the Oreos!!!”

You know I usually cringe when one of my students starts off with that.
“So I saw this video on YouTube…”

I love when there are so many tips & tricks out there for potters, but frequently they’re also learning “bad” tricks along the way. So I’ve tried to steer clear of YouTube for the most part. But recently, I did do a quick search looking for new techniques to share with my students. This week is Week Eight for my class so they’re well on their way… and ready for some more surface decorating techniques.

We’ve already used colored slip to change the color “skin” of their work. But when I saw this slip trailing… err, dripping… I though that my students would love this trick. And it’s not too advanced. It appeared to be pretty easy… so of course I decided to go for it. And “teach” this technique to my students without ever practicing myself!!! And quite honestly… I think it worked out pretty well. Click here for the YouTube video of slip trailing on a bowl. You may not understand a word he says… but the video alone is pretty mesmerizing! Here’s a still shot from the video…

Basically, you cover the surface with a thick layer of slip. The add a couple spirals. Then add some “drips” that will run down through the drawn spirals. The demo pieces on the video are a bit cleaner than mine… but I’m sure he’s been doing this technique a bit longer than me. Can you say 10 minutes?!

And once I had some confidence after the bowl, we tackled a more vertical surface on a taller vase. More room for the slip to run & drip. Click here for the YouTube video of slip trailing on a vase. Again, I think the potter may be speaking Russian?… and I’m not sure if this is “his” signature style or if it is more of a traditional Ukranian style of decoration? Here’s a still shot from the video…

We did learn a few things along the way. My slips probably should have been sieved through a fine mesh screen. And I should have tried to get them all to be a better consistency… a couple of them were a bit too watery. And I think I needed to make the base layer and the horizontal spiral with thicker slip so that there was enough slip to “move” as the drips pushed down.

After we had “played” with drippy slips, I switched it up and did a much cleaner demo for my class. I took a wet-leatherhard bowl and did a carved texture pattern around the outside wising my round loop trimming tool and a smaller sgraffito loop tool. It’s a carving technique I learned from Amy Higgason of Pigeon Road Pottery. She used to be one of the Lillstreet studio artists, but now she lives up in the Wisconsin Northwoods. Luckily, she has shared her carving techniques and they still pop-up from time to time. In fact, she even did a demo for my class a few years back… click here to go to the blog post!

So now all three pieces are done, back up in my studio, and wrapped up for the night. I still need to trim the slip decorated pieces, but I need to wait until the slip is a bit dryer. All in all, I think it was a pretty successful evening. Several of my students gave it a shot & had fun with drippy slip… and I hope when they get around to trimming a few more pieces they may consider some decorative carving!!!

Register for my wheelthrowing class quickly and save some money!!!

Yep, I will once again be teaching my Beginning & Advanced Beginning Wheelthrowing next session at Lillstreet Art Center. My class is on Tuesday nights from 7:00pm-10:00pm. It’s pretty much for “beginners” of all levels. Whether you’ve thrown on a wheel before or not… whether you’ve ever touched clay before or not… or just like to play in the mud!

Registration is already open – and my class is filling up fast! Don’t miss out!!!
Click here for online registration.