Looks like Kristy is enjoying a little Sundae Sunday in a cute little purple bowl. Cute, yes…but my question is “why so small?” That just looks like a “starter-sundae” to me… MORE IS MORE!

Some colorful bowls to brighten your holidays! Wheelthrown, stamped with my own handmade stamps & glazed! Always food-safe, microwave-safe & dishwasher-safe! The big POP-UP HOLIDAY SALE starts in just one hour ONLY on my Facebook page! Set a timer!

www.facebook.com/firewhenreadypottery

Spent the day with a bunch of great kids at Vernon Hills High School today… making a bunch of bowls, chatting about pottery & trying to inspire them to play with their clay more. After I threw two bags of clay… two dozen bowls… we talked some more and then started altering rims & decorating bowls. Great fun with a good number of “wow” moments… until the school bell rang & we ran out of time!!! Luckily, all of my bowls are staying there so that the students get to finish decorating, trimming & glazing them… and keep their new bowls!!!

With the time-change today, it is already dark outside… before 5:00pm!!! Not liking that… but I will enjoy a little more sunrise time in the morning. Yet since it is dark, damp & chilly outside… looks like Beckie has a great solution with warm & cozy soup!!! Thanks for sharing Beckie!

Just doing a little stamping tonight on a couple demo bowls from last night’s pottery class. We discussed making “larger” bowls… and then we did!!! Sure, I could select them plain… HA!!!

Sure, despite popular opinion… not “every” meal is OREOs.
Sometimes something green sneaks in!
Not my first choice, but everything tastes better in handmade pottery!!!

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.