Just spending a little time this morning restocking & replenishing shelves for Day Two of my HOLIDAY HOME SHOW… including the “Tired Of Shlepping Sale” shelves on the back porch! Don’t forget, we’re open again today from 10:00am-6:00pm!

Two of my favorite stamped bowls that came out of the soda kiln. I love the how the tenmoku glaze highlighted all of the stamping… and how the green glaze transitions to blue across the bowl where the soda hit it. It’s always so difficult to NOT keep all of these beautiful bowls for myself! So these two large bowls will be part of my HOLIDAY HOME SHOW this weekend!!!

GOTTA LOVE THE GOURD!
I’ve always been a huge fan of gourds… even more than pumpkins! I love the colors, the curves, the warts and the colorful fun of a bowl full of gourds!!! Especially when the bowl is made of rusty tools, right?!

A beautiful salad… made prettier with just a hint of the handmade stamped bowl holding it all together! Make your meals more attractive with handmade pottery!!!

Another batch of postcards arrived in the mail… thanks to my friends at The Postcard Club!!! Making snail mail cool again with hip new postcards every quarter!!! Get onboard as “you are not alone”… all the cool kids are doin’ it!!!

So tonight’s class demo was a large serving bowl… as part of Shannon’s request. She was thinking maybe 10-pounds of clay for a large bowl for making bread?! So we went for it… but decided to go with nine pounds as ten just sounded too big?! HA!!!

I tried my best to “save” some of the demo bowls from last week for my Tuesday night class… so I could continue the demo with decorating some of them with my students. I tried to wait… I tried to keep a few... but I just couldn’t. The bowls were starting to dry out and I didn’t want to wait too long… I hope they understand that I had to stamp without them! I’ll still bring them to class to show them what I did while they were gone!

After showing my Beginners how to make a “bowl on purpose” instead of a cylinder gone bad, I then proceeded to throw a bunch more during class for us to “play” with later!

When I had all twelve bowls thrown, we re-grouped and I showed them some quick tricks & techniques to make their bowls more personal & more stylish… and a little less-basic!!!

And here they are… in the sequence that we made them! You can kinda see the progression along the way!

Bowl #1 – Four fluted edges

Bowl #2 – Flared flange

Bowl #3 – Wider flared flange

Bowl #4 – Flared flange with fluted edges

Bowl #5 – Split-rim with pinched accents

Bowl #6 – Split-rim with dented & squared-off perimeter

Bowl #7 – Split-rim with pinched dents in & out

And then I introduced my new students to colored slips as an option for surface decoration! I explained to them that colored slip is clay… and basically a colored “skin” that you paint on the outside of your thrown pot. I was EXCITED to try out the new Holiday Red slip we have at Lillstreet. It was introduced towards the end of Summer Camp… and this is the first time I’ve really gotten around to trying it on a “real” pot of any kind!

Bowl #8 – Plain bowl with a colored slip spiral

Bowl #9 – Plain bowl with a squiggles with the wheel spinning… ala finger-painting!!!

Bowl #10 – Plain bowl with decorative chattering… rhythmic tapping of a rubber rib through the slip as the wheel was spinning.

Bowl #11 – Another plain bowl with bands of colored slip… I left the thick band in the center so I can do some carving in that area later when the slip dries up a bit.

Bowl #12 – The last bowl we left plain with a simple coat of red slip. The plan is that my teaching assistant Susan will do a demo next week of how she does her sgraffito technique.

So here the are… all done for the night! Twelve bowls with twelve different techniques to make them each a bit more special.

And then I covered them with plastic up in my studio for the night. I told my students I would try to keep these bowls “viable” and ready for some stamping & detailing in class next week. I hope I can wait long enough… you know how I like to stamp everything!

Colorful bowls, stamped textures & Fall gourds… all ready for Day Two of ART IN THE BARN in Barrington. Its another beautiful day here… so come on down to the Lower Barn! We’re here until 5:00pm today!

After a great art fair last weekend, I felt compelled to replenish the inventory with some new pieces. So I’m laser-focused on getting more new work ready for ART IN THE BARN in Barrington…. working fast, as it’s just a week away!!

Mark your calendars for Saturday, September 26th & Sunday, September 26th on the grounds of Advocate Good Shepard Hospital.