Today I did some more stamping in the studio.
This time on some smaller bowls. Cute little bowls…
that will get even cuter & even littler as they shrink in the kiln!

Bowl #1 –

Bowl #2 –

Bowl #3 –

Bowl #4 –

Bowl #5 –

Bowl #6 –

Bowl #7 –

Bowl #8 –

Bowl #9 –

Bowl #10 –

Bowl #11 –

Bowl #12 –

Bowl #13 –

So now they’re all wrapped up for the evening. Tomorrow I hope to do some cleaning up & refining of them all… and then trim the bottoms.

Okay, so I found it too tough to limit myself to 3 photos a day like was supposed to for the Facebook Portfolio Challenge. So I bumped it up to five. Still struggling… so it’s two posts a day?! And this one stretches it even further with TEN images of freshly stamped, leatherhard clay. My favorite stage of the whole process!!!

Continuing with my Facebook Challenge, today’s collection features a bunch of bowls. Including the last ones which were inspired by a Gail Nichols Soda-Firing Workshop… coincidentally, this photo has become the “poster-child” for Lillstreet’s annual Empty Bowls fundraiser!!!

Today I nominate Steven Hill to take on the Facebook 3 x 5 Portfolio Challenge.
I’m sure he’s been nominated several times, but as of yet I have NOT seen his posts.
C’mon Steven, step it up!!!

So Bowl #1 of my class demo was the “plain” smooth one. The bowl that was the basis for all bowls to follow. Tonight I trimmed the bowls and had “trouble” leaving it plain. It’s so not me.  So I figured a little carving here & there couldn’t hurt, right?

So I started to carve out a pattern using the rounded edge of my loop trimming tool. I started with a smaller one for the first couple rows, and then switched to a slightly larger one for the rest of the carving marks.

So much better than the “plain” bowl, right??? And thanks to Amy Higgason of Pigeon Road Pottery for the carving & detailing inspiration. She came and did a quickie workshop for my class a few session s ago and taught everyone this technique. So easy. So beautiful. So much better than a “plain” bowl.

And if a full coverage of loop tool carvings is good… why not add a knick of the sgraffito tool in the center of each one? Because you can… and I did. Thanks again Amy.

Tonight I did a little detailing on a few of the bowls that I threw for my Beginning Wheelthrowing class. Some of them were just a little too “plain” for my liking. Sure, smooth is good… but isn’t a little stamping a lot more fun?!!!

So here’s the bowl I threw with a flared flange, with a perfect “place” for stamping.

And another bowl, this time with a wider flared flange. The wider flange makes the actual “curve” of the bowl smaller… so I decided to go with a smaller stamp.

Last night was my “bowl-making-on-purpose-instead-of-a-cylinder-gone-bad” demo for my Beginning & Advanced Beginning Wheelthrowing Class. It’s my favorite demo every session. I start by showing them how to make a nice bowl with a well-rounded interior. Throwing the bowl on purpose and not allowing it to “just happen.” After I show them how to make that one “perfect” bowl, I send them back to their wheels to practice. Meanwhile, I throw eleven more bowls of a similar size & shape. And then we all regroup at my wheel so we can do some quick alterations.

Some quick “tricks” to make each bowl different from the others.
Encouraging my students to do something fun with their clay, to experiment, to play
and to make it their own. Trying to get each of my students to push it a bit further…
and to have fun with their clay!

Bowl #1 -The basic bowl. All twelve of them started just like this.

Bowl #2 – Two twisted flutes on opposite sides.

Bowl #3 – And if two flutes are sweet, maybe eight are even sweeter?!

Bowl #4 – A simple flared flange.

Bowl #5 – And if a little flare is nice, maybe a larger, wider flange is even nicer?

Bowl #6 – A split rim with some pinches around the edge.

Bowl #7 – A split rim pushed in and pushed out for a lotus-like shape.

And then, once I have them adequately overwhelmed with making bowls… why not throw them all the way over the edge by introducing colored slip?!

Bowl #8 – White slip on a simple flared flange.

Bowl #9 – A spiral dragged through white slip to reveal a spiral of the clay color using the rounded end of my wooden knife.

Bowl #1o – A chattered pattern by using a rounded edge rib and doing some rhythmic tapping through the white slip while the bowl is rotating.

Bowl #11 – A couple simple slices of newspaper used as stencils in the white slip.

Bowl #12 – A simple ombre blended color gradation using white & delphinium blue slips.

So for now, they’re up in my studio wrapped in plastic. Waiting for them to stiffen up a bit so I can do a little more detailing. Maybe some stamping. Maybe some carving. Maybe some add-on accents. And then at some point… trimming will commence!

Last night was the final class for my Beginning Wheelthrowing Class.
Hard to believe that 10-weeks has flown by already?!

In addition to a great potluck, we also did a fun “White Elephant” trading-exchanging-stealing game with bowls they each made. Everyone put in a bowl, and left with someone else’s bowl. I came home with this beauty by Catherine Walker… a porcelain bowl with some “slightly-dehydrated” black slip layered in for a beautiful marbled effect. She was all concerned about the slight oval-ness of the bowl. But that’s part of what I liked about it… it fits in my hand perfectly!!!

After my class demo last Tuesday night on making bowls, I finally got around to finishing them up tonight. I did a bit of stamping, a little embellishing, and a little refining. I also trimmed all of the bowls so they are set for the night. Drying for the next bisque firing.

One of the bowls during the demo was a flared out flange with a layer of white slip.

The bowl had dried to leatherhard so I trimmed the bottom first, and then I set into a bit of sgraffito. Now I don’t do this technique too often… but I thought it would be a good example to show my students. By the time I had finished carving it though, I must admit I might “need” to do this a bit more often…

Last night in my Beginner & Advanced Beginner Wheelthrowing Class, I showed my students how to throw basic bowls on purpose, instead of a cylinder gone bad. To start by creating the bottom curve of the bowl right from the start. To compress the curve. To avoid that little “stair-step gouge” that happens to a lot of beginner’s bowls.

After I had done the first bowl demo and answered questions, my students then moved on to work on their wheels while I threw eleven more bowls. It was basically a full bag of clay, cut into 12 balls of clay… to become twelve bowls!!! After I finished throwing them all, the class joined me again for Part Two of the demo. My favorite part – where I show them some quick “tricks” to alter & change each bowl so none of them look the same. It’s a fun demo, with the addition of colored slip for some added surface decoration.

Bowl #1 – Two simple finger twists on opposite edges.

Bowl #2 – And if two twists are good, then eight twists might be better?

Bowl #3 – A simple flange flared out with a little groove line to delineate inside from outside.

Bowl #4 – And if a thin flange is good, a wider one might be even better?!

Bowl #5 – A split rim… pinched in places and then squared off a bit.

Bowl #6 – A split rim pinched in places… then curved in & curved out.

Bowl #7 – A quick slip demo… showing a simple “covering” of white slip to make a two-tone bowl.

Bowl #8 – Some white slip on the flange… waiting to be carved through later.

Bowl #9 – More white slip to cover the inside, then a simple swirl dragged through using the rounded end of my wood knife tool.

Bowl #10 – More slip… and a spiral, and some banding, and some squiggling!

Bowl #11 – More white slip… this time using my green plastic rib to do some chattering through the slip as it is spinning.

Bowl #12 – And if one slip is good, maybe two blended together would give us a nice ombre effect… but then I couldn’t resist another spiral-swirl through the slip!!!

So all twelve of the bowls are now under wraps in my studio.

When they stiffen up a bit, I’ll do some more decorating & refining. Some stamping. Some carving. So more shape altering. And then of course, trimming of a good foot!!! Twelve different bowls… that all started out as a simple round bowl.