Okay, so I may have gotten a little reckless with the glazing of this berry bowl. The lime glaze did a bit of running & sealed up a few of the drainage holes. Sue me!

But I figure someone might still love it… especially when they realize it might make a nice stained glass window at the same time?! Double-duty pottery?

Who knows, I might be onto something here???

The sun is shining and it looks like great weather for Day Two of the HINSDALE FINE ARTS FESTIVAL. We’ll all be in Burlington Park in downtown Hinsdale from 10:00am-5:00pm. I’m restocking the shelves, so there will be plenty of pottery for everyone… including more berry bowls which look like they’re really having fun playing in the sun this morning. C’mon by… I’m in Booth #69 under a great shade tree where the cooling breezes are!

Apparently it’s MATZO MONDAY!!!
A little matzo ball soup in a handmade stamped bowl warming the day down in Florida!

While other friends are being a little “healthier” for breakfast this morning with this bright & colorful fruit salad in a “rustic” yellow bowl with a stamped rim & white slip stripes!

Last night during my SURFACE DECORATION class, we tackled carving through wheelthrown bowls to make “baskets”… with the goal of carving at least HALF of the bowl’s weight away! Tougher than it sounds. You kinda need a good plan from the start or you’ll lose some structural integrity. And then when it becomes delicate towards the end… you need to remember to NOT over-work or over-wet it… or it might just come tumbling down!

And then when it becomes delicate towards the end… you need to remember to NOT over-work or over-wet it… or it might just come tumbling down!

It’s another Thursday… so another SURFACE DECORATION class tonight. And this is getting to be a little bit of a “habit”… but I made a bunch of trimmed & leatherhard bowls for my students to carve through tonight. Can’t wait to see what kind of magic they create this evening! Not so bad for throwing these bowls late last night, huh?!

You’re the “Master of Water-Etching”… and I’m sure my students loved your demo! You went above & beyond with that splash of color… but I knew you would. Thanks for being the best sub teacher ever for my SURFACE DECORATIONS class last Thursday!

After wiping away the background… leaving the wax resist areas intact… Catherine had to get a little showy and added a layer of colored fun to her demo! Letting the wax resist do it’s thing, Catherine painted the bowl with blue underglaze… and the color doesn’t stick on the wax, except for maybe a little touch-up here & there! So now the “protected” pattern areas will be higher & clay colored… whereas the background is lower & blue!!!

When the wax resist pattern were dry, Catherine Tweedie then demonstrated how to wipe away the “unprotected” background areas with a damp sponge. As you wipe, the background dissolves away, whereas the “wax protected” parts stay where they were. The more you wipe away, the deeper the contrast between the two layers. Be careful not to wipe too hard… or you might wipe away some of the wax!

After Catherine did her demo for my SURFACE DECORATIONS class, my students picked up their paint brushes and gave it a go… painting patterns with wax resist on to the sides of bone dry bowls.