After a full day of Summer Camp… followed by an evening in my studio… I felt that I “deserved” to celebrate NATIONAL HOT FUDGE SUNDAE DAY when I got home!!! … burp.

Kristy sent me a picture of her breakfast this morning… some vibrant fresh tabbouleh salad. Not my first choice for “breakfast”… un, waffles?!… but it does look pretty yummy in a fun stamped aubergine bowl. Thanks for the photo Kristy!

You gotta love when one of your art fair “besties” brings you a little chocolate-covered yumminess to help make the art fair day even better! Thanks Rhonda… you know me too well!!! Ha!

Just doing a little more detailing on one of last week’s class demo bowls. We started with an ombre’ slip gradation from black to white slip in class. Then I did a little stamping along the rim. Followed by some carving through the slip using one of my favorite DiamondCore Tools for crisp, clean lines.

After last Tuesday’s class demo on making “not-so-basic-bowls”… there may have been a bit more detailing that happened up in my studio?! HA!!! After a couple nights under plastic, I pulled the demo bowls out and started stamping & indenting the rims to make them even more fun & even less basic!!!

So this week was “bowls on purpose, instead of cylinders gone bad” demonstration night for my Tuesday night Beginning & Advanced Beginning Wheelthrowing class. So we started by discussing what makes a good bowl… a nicely rounded interior, no beginner’s ledge, intentional rim, and all of the other things to watch out for!

So then I did a throwing demo for my students, and showed them how to make a nice bowl INTENTIONALLY, instead of a cylinder gone bad! After the demo session, my students all went back to their wheels to start practicing & making bowls of their own.

Meanwhile, I threw a bunch of bowls so that we could “play” with them later in class!!!

After my class had some time to throw their bowls, and I finished with mine…
we re-grouped at my demo wheel so that I could show them a few quick tricks & techniques to make their bowls “not-so-basic.” My feeling is pretty much that the wheel kinda makes a round bowl for you… but it’s up to each person to make it their own!!! So I just wanted to add a few “possibilities” to their arsenal of tricks to play with. So here they are…

Bowl #1 – Four fluted edges… and a nice spiral.

Bowl #2 – and if four fluted edges are good, maybe EIGHT are even better?!

Bowl #3 – A flared out flange… bent out over the edge to create a “wider” rim.

Bowl #4 – And if a one-inch flared flange is nice, maybe a larger one is even better?

Bowl #5 – Then I combined the flared flange with some fluted accents.

Bowl #6 – A split-rim pinched back together in eight places!

Bowl #7 – Another split-rim pressed-in on two sides. There’s “a very good chance” that there might be a handle up & over from pinched part to pinched part to make it a “basket” bowl.

Bowl #8 – Another split rim – pressed in on four sides to create a kind of quatrefoil effect.

Bowl #9 – Another split rim pressed in at four points, and pressed out at four points! Kind of a lotus pattern.

So after doing a bunch of altered rims, I introduced them to colored slip. And how they can use some “thick” slip to add some details & textures to their bowls.

Bowl #10 – A layer of thick white slip with a spiral dragged through from the center up & out.

Bowl #11 – Another layer of thick white slip with banded drag-throughs… and a good chance that there “might be” some carving to be done through the thicker bands.

Bowl #12 – Thick white slip with some finger painting… just some squiggles from my index finger.

Bowl #13 – Thick white slip with some fun chattered texture & patterns… rhythmic tapping with a rubber rib… up & down, round & round, from center to rim.

Bowl #14 – An ombre’ blend of white slip to black slip… and again, a “good chance” there might be some carving coming soon!

Bowl #15 – And ombre’ blend of thick white & black slips… and a finger squiggled through.

Bowl #16 – Thick black & white ombre’ blend– and then chattered through the slip.

And for now they’re all “resting” safely in my studio under a bunch of plastic. Like I said, there might still some additional work don on these to make them EVEN MORE “not-so-basic”!!! Maybe a little stamping, carving & detailing… possibly?… allegedly?…

So I trimmed this bowl when it was a little wetter than it should have been. But I was headed out of town for the Pottery Tour… so rushed it. As it was kinda soft, I left it out to dry upside down on a plastic bat. Apparently when it dried, the bottom between the footring “moved” upwards a bit as the bowl dried & shrank??? So now the bowl is bone dry… and the bottom center is higher than the footring… so it’s a “SPINNER”!!! ugh.

Really only one thing to do…

Looks like Kristy is celebrating NATIONAL FUDGE DAY today… and trying to stay just a little bit healthy?! A dollop of homemade yogurt & fresh strawberries… and just a squirt of hot fudge!!! Looks yummy Kristy!

Bright blue bowl & bright red cherries!
Looks like the perfect snack for a warm sunny Friday. Thanks for sharing Kristy!

And since we had a lot of “extra” ribbons of colored slabs… a few of my SURFACE DECORATION students continued on in different directions… yes please… by all means PLAY WITH YOUR CLAY!!!