Last night in class, I did a couple demos of plates & platters. One of the plates was kinda plain… so I decided to add some thick white slip & chatter through it with a rubber rib.

“On a clear day, rise and look around you.
And you’ll see who – just who you are.”

Today was one of those mornings…
where you could “see forever, and ever and ever… and evermore.”

Finally finishing up this cutie! It was one of my class pieces from my “not-so-basic bowls” demo a couple weeks ago. In class I just did the two indentations… and suggested maybe adding a handle up & over. I think a few of them may have thought I was kidding… well, I wasn’t!!!

Before the rain… some beautiful little white flowers blooming on textured green leaves.

Cranking out a few more bowls before teaching class tonight. Gotta cover them with plastic so I can do more to them tomorrow. I have some big plans for these ones!!!

The morning started with some dark & gloomy clouds. Thinking it could go either way… with lots of sunrise potential. Luckily, the sun made it through just enough to color the clouds… but never quite made a full morning appearance.

The clouds won!

My final class demo for my SURFACE DECORATION class last Thursday was a fun & colorful floral pattern. I used black, red & green slip… and let it dry to a stiffer leatherheard surface. And then started carving through the layers with my DiamondCore Tools. It was a fun platter to work on… my first time doing a multi-colored sgraffito piece. I’m pretty pleased with this new direction… although I feel it still needs some more detailing & clean-up. I might just need to make more of these…

It’s always fun to share my collection of DiamondCore Tools with my students. We were focusing on sgraffito as this week’s SURFACE DECORATION technique. And I wanted them to learn how to do sgraffito the “right way”… and that means by having some great tools to do their carving!

My students had a great time with their sgraffito projects last Thursday night. They all realized that the hardest part is making the very first mark carving through the colored slip. It’s like looking at a blank canvas & freaking out just a little about how & where to start. But once they started carving with my DiamondCore Tools … they found out how much fun it was… and how tough it is to stop!!!

After the sgraffito bowl, I went for a more geometric treatment of a larger dinner plate… carving through the band of black slip to reveal a pattern of the lighter clay body. Just trying to show my students that there are different styles… and that not all sgraffito needs to be so illustrative. Again, carving clean lines & smooth curves with my DiamondCore Tools.