Gotta love a good Fall Farmers Market… when they have big bags of crunchy-sweet apples! And you also gotta love having a big pottery bowl to put them in!!!

Like I said before… I liked all of the “not-so-basic bowls” after my class demo last Tuesday night. But I kinda thought they were missing something?! So I did a little more stamping & detailing on all of the bowls tonight. A lot more texture & stamped details on all of the bowls. I feel better now!

By the end of class Tuesday, we had a tableful of bowls… all with some fun alterations & decorations! They’re safely under plastic for a couple days… as I think they “might” just need a little more. Perhaps a bit of stamping??? You know, more is more!!!

After showing my pottery class how to make “bowls-on-purpose,” we switched to doing some fun alterations & surface decoration techniques. I kinda feel like the wheel makes nice round things for you… but then YOU need to do something to it to make it YOURS!!! So I showed them a few things to play with!!!

Bowl #1 – Plain… this is how all of the bowls started out!

Bowl #2 – Four Fluted Edges

Bowl #3 – and if four were nice, maybe Eight Fluted Edges is better?!

Bowl #4 – a One-Inch Flared Flange of a rim

Bowl #5 – and if one-inch was nice… maybe a Three-Inch Flared Flange would be better?!

Bowl #6 – combined a Flared Flange with some Four Fluted Edges

Bowl #7 – two sharp indentations that will eventually be a good place for a Basket Handle.

Bowl #8 – a Split Rim that has been pinched back together in eight places

Bowl #9 – a Split Rim dented in at four places

Bowl #10 – a Split Rim dented in & dented out… four in & four out.

Bowl #11 – a little dragonscaling tool indented on the bottom

After some fun bowl alterations… I also introduced using colored slips as a decorative option. Basically adding a layer of colored clay of a change of color, or for a textural accent inside the bowl. I did my demos with white slip to accentuate the thick slip textures.

Bowl #12 – thick white slip with a Spiral dragged through to reveal the clay body contrast.

Bowl #13 – thick white slip with bands dragged through

Bowl #14 – thick white slip with some decorative Chattering for a cool pattern

Bowl #15 – an ombre’ blend of black & white slips then a finger tip Squiggle through it all.

This past Tuesday in my Beginning Wheel class, we tackled making “bowls on purpose, instead of cylinders gone bad.” So I showed them the basics of how to get a nice smooth curve inside their bowls. And then while they practiced, I made “a few” more! Just one bag of clay… getting ready for Part Two of the night’s “not-so-basic-bowl” demo!!!

Celebrating another yummy holiday… late night snacks tonight for NATIONAL HOMEMADE COOKIE DAY!!! Special thanks to Christine for making these yummy pumpkin spice oatmeal chocolate cookies for our pottery class last night!!!

Gotta love when one of your art fair friends brings homegrown tomatoes to share for a lunchtime snack!!! Just wish I had a bowl to put them in… oh, wait a minute… I think I do!!! Thanks Cheryl for sharing… and if you come to The Barn, she’s directly above me with her beautiful mixed-media paintings!

Just a little snack before teaching class tonight… you know how I love a good holiday!
Just celebrating NATIONAL GUACAMOLE DAY… yum!!!

Looks like Matthew has pulled together some Friday night fun… hot fudge sundaes with a smattering of blueberries & walnuts!!! And the stamped purple bowls are trying their best to “hide” the fact that there is NOT enough hot fudge… am I right Kristy?!!!

Last night in my Beginning Wheel class, we did another “trading-exchanging-stealing game” to celebrate our last class of the session… with a category of “Not-So-Basic Bowls.” After several rounds, I came away with this cutie by Allison. Underglaze dots… and a beautiful crazy-crazed clear glaze! Lillstreet has been reformulating some of their glazes… and I think this was made with one of the test batches!