After the shellac pattern had dried, I started wiping away the background during my Monday night class with water and a sponge. The basic idea is that you wipe away the exterior surface of all the areas that are not protected by the shellac. As you wipe away, the unprotected surface goes down leaving raised surfaces under the shellac. You can wipe as much away as you want… but be careful as the shellac will start to wipe away eventually too!

And mental note to self… if you’re going to do a colored slip under the shellac like I did, it would be a lot easier to see what’s happening if the slip was a better color contrast to the clay body. The orange flashing slip I used is very similar to the B-clay color… so it was tough to see sometimes if I had wiped it all away. The color you see here is amber shellac. My fear is that there might be areas where the background wasn’t wiped away enough?! We’ll find out after bisque firing… but by then it’s too late to fix. Fingers crossed.

After doing my first class demo with the water etching technique, I decided to go one step further with another demo piece. My first bowl was more random with multiple patterns kinda like a “sampler” just on the B-clay surface. This time I first covered the exterior with an orange flashing slip, then painted on this swirly pattern with shellac. My hope is that when I “wash away” the background, the pattern will be raised and the orange slip will POP more after soda firing… and the raised edges will catch some soda too!!!

Looks like it’s another Sundae Funday Sunday!!! Yummy chocolate ice cream in “lickable” stamped & glazed bowls! Thanks for sharing Kristy & Matt… now I want ice cream too!!! Great.

Once the handles had stiffened up a bit, it was time to give them a little curve and start attaching them onto these fun split-rimmed “basket” bowls! I’m thinking these might just be glazed, finished & perfect for that Easter Bunny who loves pottery!!!

When the shellac patterns were dry, I started to wipe away the “background” clay with a damp sponge. The idea is to remove layers of the background so that the shellac patterns remain intact and “higher” than the rest of the bowl. Luckily I used B-Clay, as wiping away stoneware would reveal a rough & groggy surface.

So I wiped… and wiped… and learned a few things.
One, it’s hard to know when to stop.
Two, if you wipe too hard or too long, some of the shellac wipes away too… so my thick shellac lines started to get thinner in some sections. Of course, I struggled with that for awhile… but I think I’m okay with it now.

When this bowl gets bisque fired, the shellac will burn away and then I’ll finish it with a nice glaze to help accentuate the edges & difference in surface heights. Already planning the next water etching project… let the class demo “challenge” continue!!!

You know how I love a good challenge!

So when one of my students Heidi “challenged me”
to do some water etching instead of stamping… I said “Game On!”

So I threw a bowl, dried it to leatherhard, trimmed it and brought it back to class. I didn’t really have a design plan… so I went more with a “sampler” style bowl. So in class I painted my patterns on the bowl with shellac. I used a Q-Tip instead of a brush because I thought it would have a better edge instead of bristles moving around too much… plus, disposable! I let the shellac dry… and then it was time to start wiping away the background clay! More to come…

Staying warm, staying inside… making more bowls in the studio. Can’t wait for these to stiffen up a bit so I can stamp them and move them along in the process… let the transformation begin… soon to be “something to behold”!!!

What a difference a few years of experience & a few thousand pots can make!!! I remember making the large bowl on the right “back in the day” at the old Lillstreet location… it was the largest thing I had ever made!!! I was so excited to decorate the rim with colored slips… before I “found” stamps! Sure, it might weigh three or four times more than it should… has a very heavy & clunky bottom… and has a bit of a beginner’s ledge on the interior curve… but who cares when it’s filled with popcorn?! The one on the left is newer, decoratively stamped and weighs what it should with a much better footring, a perfectly smooth interior curve… and holds popcorn too!!!

Thanks Gerry & Rosene for the trip down Memory Lane!

Doing a little carving on another TEXTURE TUESDAY!
Carving textures instead of stamping… for a change!

Looks like SUPER BOWL snacks are coming together… some healthier than others… in some “super bowls”!!! Mine is a large blue stamped bowl… while the adorable bunny bowl was made by my pal Cory McCrory! Thanks for sharing your bowls & snacks Tina!