Well, registration begins tomorrow morning for summer classes at Lillstreet Art Center. I will again be teaching my Intermediate Wheel class on Monday nights & my Beginning Wheel class on Tuesday night. Classes fill FAST!!!… so good luck if you’re looking for some summer fun playing in the mud with us!!!

Last night in class, I did a couple demos of plates & platters. One of the plates was kinda plain… so I decided to add some thick white slip & chatter through it with a rubber rib.

My final class demo for my SURFACE DECORATION class last Thursday was a fun & colorful floral pattern. I used black, red & green slip… and let it dry to a stiffer leatherheard surface. And then started carving through the layers with my DiamondCore Tools. It was a fun platter to work on… my first time doing a multi-colored sgraffito piece. I’m pretty pleased with this new direction… although I feel it still needs some more detailing & clean-up. I might just need to make more of these…

It’s always fun to share my collection of DiamondCore Tools with my students. We were focusing on sgraffito as this week’s SURFACE DECORATION technique. And I wanted them to learn how to do sgraffito the “right way”… and that means by having some great tools to do their carving!

My students had a great time with their sgraffito projects last Thursday night. They all realized that the hardest part is making the very first mark carving through the colored slip. It’s like looking at a blank canvas & freaking out just a little about how & where to start. But once they started carving with my DiamondCore Tools … they found out how much fun it was… and how tough it is to stop!!!

After the sgraffito bowl, I went for a more geometric treatment of a larger dinner plate… carving through the band of black slip to reveal a pattern of the lighter clay body. Just trying to show my students that there are different styles… and that not all sgraffito needs to be so illustrative. Again, carving clean lines & smooth curves with my DiamondCore Tools.

This week in my SURFACE DECORATION class, it was Sgraffito Night! I had suggested that they all bring some leatherhard pieces to carve through. I did a couple demo pieces & my students did their own thing too!!! So much better with good carving tools from DiamondCore Tools! My first demo piece was this small bowl with an ombre’ blend of white & black slips.

After my class demo, my SURFACE DECORATION students went off to start carving on their own pots. So much fun to see them using different techniques & tools to create their own special carvings, patterns & textures!

This week with my SURFACE DECORATION class, we tackled carving & slip trailing… okay, so mostly carving! We talked about carving textures & patterns into our pots with different tools to get different effects. Like some clean carved grooves using some of my DiamondCore Tools … and fun little circles with an old drill bit.

Last night in my Beginning & Advanced Beginning Wheelthrowing class we tackled the right way to make BOWLS. And yes, I stressed throwing “bowls on purpose, and not cylinders gone bad!” So I did a quick demo for them… answering questions & showing them how to get a nice smooth curve inside their bowls, with no beginners ledges or indents!

And yes… I explained & demo’d my LOVE for a good spiral !!!

And then after the first bowl… I sent them back to their wheels so they could start practicing. Meanwhile, I continued to throw MORE bowls… a full bag of clay’s worth… while still helping & answering questions along the way!

After I had thrown all of my demo bowls… we were back to helping students make their own bowls. BOWLS. BOWLS . BOWLS!!! Towards the end of the class, I had my students regroup a my demo wheel so we could do some alterations & decorations to the bowls… making each one of them special & unique with some simple tricks & techniques. Turning each one into a “not-so-basic bowl.”

Bowl #1 – The Plain One. The first bowl… the standard for all of the other bowls to follow!

Bowl #2 – Two Little Flutes… one finger inside, one finger outside, pinch & twist.

Bowl #3 – And if two are cute… eight simple flutes might be cuter?!

Bowl #4 – A Flared out Flange… bent out over a finger on the outside of the bowl.

Bowl #5 – If a little flared flange is cute, maybe a bigger flared flange is even better?

Bowl #6 – Combined a flared flange with four twisted flutes.

Bowl #7 – A split rim… then pinched together in eight places.

Bowl #8 – A split rim indented on two sides with the side of my wooden knife… this one might just become a “basket” with a fun strappy handle up & over the top!

Bowl #9 – Another split rim… indented in four places. No one said a bowl needs to stay round!!!

Bowl #10 – Another split rim… four indented sides… and four “out-dented” sides?! Kind of a lotus-y quatrefoil effect.

After ten bowls, it was time to add a little thick slip into the demo. So we talked about how cool slip is… and that the colored clay can be used for some many applications. That it becomes “part of” your bowl… and it will not melt & run like glaze does. But I like to work with “thick” slip so I can benefit from the thickness & textures it can create.

Bowl #11 – A great spiral. A thick layer of white slip with the end of my wood knife dragged through while the wheel was spinning.

Bowl #12 – Thick slip with some fingerpainting… an index finger squiggled through while spinning on the wheel!

Bowl #13 – Thick slip with dragged-through lines using a rubber rib.

Bowl #14 – Again with my green rubber rib, and some chattering through thick white slip!

Bowl #15 – Ombre’ blend of black & white slips.

Bowl #16 – Another ombre’ blend… and then a spiral dragged through with my wooden knife.

Bowl #17 – Another ombre’ blend also spiraled through, but this time with my finger!

The goal of this demo is multi-faceted. First, I want my students to make nice, well-thrown bowls. Second, I want them to have an arsenal of tricks & techniques to use whenever they want to. Have fun woth your clay, make cool stuff… and if it doesn’t work out, do it again! IT’S JUST CLAY!!!

And for now they’re all up in my studio safely under plastic. Because there’s “a very good chance that there might just be some more detailing” to follow… stay tuned.