So the class demo bowls have been “under wraps” in my studio for a few days. But I finally got around to do doing some stamping & detailing. Making the “not-so-basic” bowl demo even MORE not so basic!!!

A quick row of stamps around the edge of a thin flared rim.

A thinner row of stamping on the smaller section of the bowl.

Another row of stamps around the interior of this bowl with a fluted flange.

This bowl had two finger-twists… so I decided to stamp HALF, and only half!!!

Eight fluted accents… now with angled stamps & little button accents.

The basic split-rim bowl now has little “buttons” attached where it was pinched back together. You can’t really see it, but there’s also a stamp on the exterior just below each pinch point.

Same deal here… a small stamp on the exterior and “buttons” added at the pinch points.

The bowl with the dragonscale “flower” got a simple “grooved” rim.

The basic bowl with solid white slip inside got a simple row of stamps along the top exterior.

A simple bowl… a simple rim… no longer so simple with a row of stamps!

Grooved rim should catch & hold some glazes in a pretty cool way.

The split rim square has been detailed… but only on the inside is the rims!

With some concentric circles in the bottom, I though circular dot stamps were perfect!

The chattering pattern has a certain “motion” to it… so I tried to accentuate the movement with some angled grooves around the rim.

Vertical stripes dragged through the slip are mimicked with the grooved rim.

So now they’re drying and waiting to be trimmed. One step closer to done.

Last evening, we did my FAVORITE class demo of every session for my Beginners & Advanced Beginners. It’s the demo where I show my students how to make a basic bowl on purpose… instead of a cylinder gone bad!!! So we cover the basics of bowl-making…. and then I continue to make a LOT More bowls while they go back to their wheels to start throwing. After I’ve made a good number of bowls… a full clay bag full…  I call them all back to my demo wheel so we can start playing with the bowls. I threw them all on plastic bats and did NOT wire them off, so that they are still centered on the bat. I can then easily put them back on the wheel and they’re still centered.Bowl by bowl, we go through a whole lot of options and techniques for altering & decorating each of the bowls.

My goal is to show them some tricks… but more importantly to show them that they can actually PLAY with their clay. That they can push it further than they think… and make it their own piece of work. That bowls don’t always have ot be round… nor left exactly how the wheel made it for them.

BOWL A – This is the “starter” bowl… simple, round, just as they all came off the wheel.

BOWL B – Two simple flutes to the edge, so much cooler already!!!

BOWL C – And if two finger flutes are good, eight might be even better?!

BOWL D – A small flared flange and a groove line where the change of direction happens.

BOWL E – If a small flange was nice, maybe wider would be better?! Kinda like one of those fancy restaurants where you get the huge plate with one small fancy morsel for a huge price!

BOWL F – Combined flared flange and finger fluted accents.

BOWL G – A fun “flower” decoration made in the bottom of the bowl with a simple dragonscale tool.

BOWL H – Split rim bowl pinched back together in eight places.

BOWL I – Very similar to the one before, except the bowl was “bulged out” and rounded more by hand between the pinch marks.

BOWL J -Another split rim pinched “in” and pinched “out”… and then formed into a square.

BOWL K -A simple round bowl with a solid coverage of white slip inside.

BOWL L – A simple covering of blue slip with a spiral pattern from the end of a paintbrush being dragged through while the wheel was spinning.

BOWL M – Another bowl with more blue slip. Partial spiral in the bottom. And some banding around the sides that were then dragged through vertically to create the “grid” effect.

BOWL N – A thick layer of white slip with a finger squiggle through it while the wheel is spinning.

BOWL O – A layer of blue slip with a chattered pattern through to reveal the clay color below.

BOWL P -This one is funny because it started out as a newspaper stencil demo. I cut a few squares and used them as a pattern stencil. But when I pulled them out, I didn’t really like the design, AND I couldn’t find all of them. Ha!!! So I dug around to pull them all out and then re-covered it all with slip and did a little banding in the bottom.

BOWL Q – A blended ombre effect with white and blue slips.

So now they’re up in my studio and under plastic. Once they set-up a bit, I will do a little more stamping, detailing & trimming of the bowls. Hopefully my students were inspired by a few of the techniques… and might actually try making some not-so-basic bowls with a little design flair!!!

Looks like it’s raspberry season!!!
And my cousin Kim has been growing them in her yard again this year. Making her morning cereal taste even better… and a “fancy bowl” to make them LOOK even better too!

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Quick pic of a soda-fired, class demo bowl that just came out of the kiln.
With an altered rim and stamps on one half of it… just ‘cuz.

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Just making a couple larger bowls. I find it’s easier to throw them larger and shape them of the clay is in the firmer side to start with. Easier to throw, but a bit tougher to center. These started out with about 6-pounds of clay each.

After they were thrown & shaped, the let them set-up overnight under some plastic. Then they were good for stamping & detailing.

Here’s the second large bowl in sharp contrast to the smaller cereal bowls on the bats nearby.

The outside is stamped with larger stamps. The inside shows the finger divots and smaller accent stamp. The rim is fluted and detailed.

There’s nothing sweeter than fresh produce in a handmade berry bowl.
Just rinse, shake and serve in the berry bowl on the matching drip plate.
What could be sweeter?

And thanks to Kelly for sharing her strawberries with us this morning!

With just a month left before art fair season, it’s time to buckle down and produce some more pots! Tonight I focused on throwing some more bowls… that will be trimmed & drilled to become berry bowls.

And some small plates that will go under the berry bowls.

Here’s a pretty amazing technique to decorate the inside of a bowl. Always an awkward place to get into without altering the pattern or the bowl. Well, here’s a way to alter BOTH that looks so perfect you’d have no idea of what it went through to get to this point. My students know I’m not a big fan of the heat gun… but for this technique it might just be worth it?! File this one under “Things I Definitely Need To Try.”

Click here for Forrest Middleton’s video clip courtesy of Ceramic Arts Daily.

Apparently the Easter Bunny left far too much candy for my cousin’s kids in Minnesota?! They still have a LOT of sugar going on up there. Luckily, they have a great bowl and a few spoons to help scoop up some sweets! Because you know that jelly beans always taste better when eaten off a handmade ceramic spoon… or five!

The bowls from last Tuesday night’s class have been sitting in my studio under plastic for a few days. Last night I finally got around to doing some stamping & detailing. I would love to continue this demo with my students in class, but I’m always afraid that they will dry too far if I were to wait until next Tuesday. So hopefully, they will see how their class demo bowls have progressed here on the blog… just like the rest of you!

Flanged Bowls with a border of stamps.

Flared & Fluted Bowl with a border of stamps.

Wide Flange Bowl with a border of stamps.

Split Rim with pinches… with little balls of clay attached at the pinch-points with a small stamp.

Two-Fluted Bowl… I thought it would be fun to stamp just one side of the bowl.

Dragonscale Flower… so I used the same dragon scale tool to decorate the rim.

Split Rim, Pinched & Rounded Bowl – I added small balls of clay at the pinch points, and then textured just the inner rim of the split using a pointed wooden tool.

Lotus-fluted Split Rim – the previous textured split rim was nice, so I did it again!

Slip Spiral Bowl with a stamped rim.

Ombre Slip Bowl with a simple textured rim.

Banded Slip Bowl with a simple textured rim.

Slip Chattered Bowl with a textured rim from a rounded wooden tool.

And now that all of the demo bowls have been stamped & detailed, they are back under some plastic hoping to be trimmed tomorrow,