Three new pots freshly thrown for tomorrow night’s class demos.
One bowl for carving… another bowl & vase for slip decorating.
And I’m going to be trying a new slip technique (for the first time) with my class!!!

After a very “sweet” breakfast with Taylor and the rest of my family, I decided to go into the studio to take advantage of my “syrup-sugar high.” I was a little unfocused on what to start with… so you know that when that happens I pretty much always make MUGS!!! So I started with a dozen – and went on from there!

After getting some great response & comments about the fluted bowl I made from my class demo, I decided I might want to capitalize on that and make more!!!

I love how the shaped bowls line up and make a great pattern as a group. The negative space between the bowls are almost as much fun as the bowls themselves?!!!

Tuesday night’s demos…
Fluted bowl. Lidded jars. Flower pot. Mini vase.
Stamped. Trimmed. Detailed. Done… Drying!

Tonight’s syllabus line-up for my class demos was a little aggressive.
A lot of things to cover in a short mount of time. A lot to do. A lot for them to take in.
Trying not to overwhelm my Beginners, but still keep my returning students engaged.
I think they doubted that I could get it all squeezed in… but I did!!!

Demo #1 – We started with another bowl demo. It was much the same as last week’s bowl demo. Just one more. It wasn’t until I got home and posted the photos that I realized that I had forgotten to do the one demo shape that my student Dave had requested. Shoot. So tonight I corrected that oversight and made one more bowl. With one more design. This time with a split rim and some “lotus” shaped alterations.

Demo #2 – Next, I did a plate & platter throwing demo. I showed them how easy it is to throw a plate… basically a very wide cylinder, with the sides flared out. Then I explained that the slow drying to leather-hard and trimming is the tough part of the process.

Demo #3 – Next up, I showed them how to convert a normal bowl into a pedestal bowl. First I trimmed the bottom of the bowl to a smooth, “domed” bowl bottom. And then I scored & slipped a ball of clay onto the top of the “dome” bottom. A quick centering of that ball of clay, and a quick thrown cylinder, collar, shape, groove lines, and voila’…

When you flip it over… pedestal bowl.

Demo #4 – The next bowl conversion was a demo on how I turn them into berry bowls. And what better way than with power tools!!! I brought my drill in and we made some holes the easy way.

And oh, but wait there’s more… we ALSO covered basic glazing techniques!
Demo #5 – Yes, we squeezed in a full glaze demo… starting with waxing the bottoms, all the way to dipping, drying, cleaning, finishing and putting them onto the glaze cart for firing.

So after a very fast-pace two hours, we had completed our demos, fully discussed the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, the Beatles 50th Special, and still had over an hour for all my students to get some work done. And here’s what I got done…

Tonight I stamped… and stamped… and stamped…
All of the bowls I threw yesterday were “ready” to be stamped. Sure, again I might be rushing it. And sure, they might have been a bit squishier than I would like. And sure, maybe they weren’t as “ready” as I had hoped. But sometimes when it comes to stamping my pots – I JUST CAN’T WAIT.

So now they’re all stamped and ready to dry a bit more. Next up… trimming & drilling holes. And then I need to make small plates to go with each of the bowls before I can consider them berry bowls sets!

Enough of this Winter. I’m trying to channel my “inner-Spring”… and I’m thinking
these will become berry bowls after some stamping, trimming & hole drilling!

Tonight I did a little detailing of my class demo bowls from Tuesday night.
They’re still a bit too wet to trim, and al little too squishy to stamp… but what the heck…
I decided to go for it!!!

Stencil & Slip Bowl – now with a decoratively stamped rim.

Flared Flange Bowl – now with a stamped interior band.

Split & Pinched Rim Bowl – now with stamped dots on the pinches!

Super-Wide Flanged Bowl – now with a band of decorative stamping.

Fluted Rim Bowl – now with some graduated “beads” along the rim.

Flanged & Fluted Bowl – now with a ring of stamps!

Today I was contacted by an Estate Sale coordinator. She was asking if I sign my pots with the signature “Gary.” After a little double-checking, I found out that a collection of my work is going up at an Estate Sale at the end of the month. Hopefully another pottery-lover will snatch them all up to start their own collection!

I find it pretty cool that she could track me down purely by my signature!
Although I’m still not quite sure how I feel about my pots being in an Estate Sale???…
I guess better than a Goodwill or Salvation Army, huh?

Click here for the link if you want to go snatch them up yourself.
I’m sure you’ll get a great deal on them!

Well, we’re at Week Four of our Beginning & Advanced Beginning Wheelthrowing class.
And tonight we tackled BOWLS!!!

Bowls on purpose… not a whoops, my cylinder just turned into a bowl!!!

So I taught them the basics of throwing a good bowl. Right from the start… from opening the ball of clay with a curved bottom… to shaping the bowl with a rib from inside. I always stress the importance of throwing the “inside” shape of the bowl. The outside you can trim to match the curve of the inside… not visa-versa!

After I threw my first demo bowl, my students went back to their wheels to start making bowls. In the meantime, I threw eleven more of the same basic round bowl. We then all reassembled for Part Two of the bowl demo… altering & decorating each of them in a different way. My goal is to show my students a few quick tricks, encourage them to try some new techniques and to emphasize that “it’s just clay” and they need to play more & express themselves!!!

So here are the twelve bowls after Part Two.
They all started the same, but didn’t stay that way for long!

Bowl #1 – Just a couple finger flips for a new “twist” on a round bowl.

Bowl #2 – And if two twists are good…. eight twists might be better!

Bowl #3 – Then I flared out the rim to add a flange all around.
This one will be stamped later when it stiffens up a bit, but not too much… tomorrow?

Bowl #4 – A bit of flange is good, but more dramatic is always better!
This one will be stamped later when it stiffens up a bit, but not too much… tomorrow?

Bowl #5 – Why not combine them – finger twists & flared flange?
This one will be stamped later when it stiffens up a bit, but not too much… tomorrow?

Bowl #6 – With a simple dragon-scale tool…. a few impressions makes a nice flower!

Bowl #7 – A split rim pinched back together… kind of a quilted rim!

Then I introduced them to colored slips. I planned ahead and threw my bowls with Ochre Stoneware. When it fires it will become a dark chocolate brown. I knew that white slip would make a great contrast in the end. I explained slip possibilities & overwhelmed them with too many options. You could see their eyes glazing over… or looking back in fear. Too many options!!! And we haven’t even glazed anything yet!!!

Bowl #8 – After coating the inside, I dragged a round tip through for a fun spiral effect.

Bowl #9 – Kinda the same, but this time banding & squiggling through the white slip.

Bowl #10 – Another white slipped bowl, but this time chattered with a rounded rib.

Bowl #11 – Two letters cut out of the newspaper stuck on & slipped over. Then pulled out to reveal a little monogram inside the bowl. Shhhh… Don’t tell anyone, but there’s a “really good chance” that it will go to my niece Taylor… they’re her initials!!!

Bowl #12 РThe last bowl was a two-tone ombr̩ effect with white & blue slips.

So now all twelve bowls are back in my studio. Wrapped up for the night. Tomorrow I will do a bit of stamping, some more altering and some more detailing of the bowls. Always my favorite demo of the session… now I just hope my students make a bunch of bowls. And not just plain old round ones!!!

This is kind of amazing…
in an oddly simple, old-school, and yet I’m sure not-so-easy-to-do kind of way!
Pretty impressive. Makes me want to start “spinning” more bowls to see what shows up!!!
Click here for the video!