A quiet Sunday night in the studio… just me and a few more mugs in the making! Whenever I can’t decide on what to make… MUGS seem to be my “go-to” default… every time!

I love when your “friend-worlds” collide! Like earlier today when my good college friend Kelly & her mom Mimi met up with my pottery friend Cory McCrory during an art fair at the Vrooman Mansion in Bloomington! I know Kelly has been an online “fan” of Cory’s work for several years… so this “friends-collision” makes me very happy! Plus, it looks like a few purchases were made too… which also makes me happy!!! Fun pottery for everyone!

This past week in Summer Camp, my kids were Wheelthrowing for the most part… but on Thursday my morning kids switched to handbuilding. Sure, they “could have” made anything, but I gave them a challenge. I told them that I wanted them to make two mugs with a theme that ties them together. Some of the themes they chose?… cookies & milk… fruit & veggies… earth & moon… dragon & dinosaur… cat & dog… and so on…

Once the mugs were built, the kids then switched to painting them with colored slips. Once done, they’ll dry and get bisque fired… and then someone at Lillstreet will be glazing them with clear glaze after camp ends. The kids will need to come back about two weeks after camp to pick up their masterpieces!

And then once they were done, we set them aside so the slip could dry a bit… and put them together in their “sets” of two!

After this week’s “bowls om purpose, not a cylinder gone bad” demo… I was left with fifteen bowls to finish up. Sure, I “coulda” left them the way they were. But, you know I co e from the school of MORE IS MORE!!! So here’s a few shots of what I’ve done with them since class!

So for now they’re all stamped & detailed… just waiting to be trimmed!

This week in my Beginning & Advanced Beginning Wheelthrowing class, we discussed making bowls on purpose and NOT cylinders gone bad. We talked about how they need to start making the bowl curve inside their bowl right form the very start. And that they should be looking for a nicely rounded interior… and NOT a flat bottom, corners and a curved side like a cylinder gone bad!!!

After the first bowl demo, I sent my students back to their wheels so they could start throwing some nicely rounded bowls. And then I went back to my wheel to make “a few” more bowls…

And then we re-grouped and talked about how I believe the wheel does most of the work making a nice round bowl. But it’s up to each student to make that bowl their own… employing some quick tricks & techniques to make their bowls new & different… and a bit more “stylish” than the others!

So here are the “tricks” that I showed them all…

BOWL #1 – two fluted edges… gently asymmetrical.

BOWL #2 – if two fluted edges are nice, EIGHT might even better?!

BOWL #3 – a flared flange… approximately 1″ rim

BOWL #4 – if one inch is good, maybe three or four inches are even better?!

BOWL #5 – combined flared flange with four flouted edges

BOWL #6 – a split rim pinched back together in eight places

BOWL #7 – a split rim dented-in at four places

BOWL #8 – a split rim bowl dented-in at four places & dented-out at four places… kinda giving it a “lotus” shape?!

So after altering some rims, I decided to introduce colored slips as another possibility for decorating their bowls. I decided to use white slip for my demo purposes… but any choice of colored slips would have worked.

BOWL #9 – thick white slip with a spiral dragged through to reveal the color of the clay body.

BOWL #10 – thick white slip with some banded stripes dragged through.

BOWL #11 – thick white slip with some groovy finger squiggles.

BOWL #12 – back by popular demand… another one thick white slip with some groovy finger squiggles… a little closer together than the first one!

BOWL #13 – newspaper pieces cut out, applied with a bit of water, and then covered with white slip… and then gently pulled out to reveal the original clay body under the newspaper stencils.

BOWL #14 – thick slip with vertical “swipes” made with a rubber rib, and then a spiral dragged through the middle section.

BOWL #15 – thick white slip chattered with a plastic rib… rhythmic tapping of the rib through the slip while the wheel is spinning.

So for now, my new “not-so-basic” bowls are all decorated from my class demos… and under plastic for the night. I want to keep them wet because there “just might be” some more stamping & decorating to be done! Remember, MORE IS MORE!!!

Some may think they’re weeds, but I’m LOVING these Globe Thistles. Such cool shapes, textures, colors & the bees love them too!!! Thanks to my cousin Kim for sharing some of these from her garden so I can enjoy them in my garden now too!

Of course Summer Camp isn’t ALL FUN all of the time… because Rule #3 says that “any mess you make, YOU will be cleaning it up!” And they do!!! Even when it’s a lot of water spilled on the floor… so there they go… down on the floor with a sponge!!! Giddy-up!!!

Getting all muddy & dirty sure is fun!!!

It’s been another great week of Wheelthrowing Summer Camp… with a younger group in the mornings, and an older group in the afternoon. It’s always fun to watch them learn how to throw on the wheel… struggle a bit… and then crank out a bunch of pots in just a couple days!!!

We had a surprise guest in my beginning pottery class Tuesday night! Nick came into class with a black duffel bag asking where he could stash it somewhere quite & clean. We put it under the wedging table… only after finding out that there was a four-week old puppy inside!!! My student Nick is a veterinarian and was at the vet clinic when someone found this cutie abandoned on the side of the road and brought him in. We all loved it… and told Nick that we now expect a different puppy in class each week!!! HA!!!