Last Thursday night, while I was driving north to Minneapolis for the Pottery Tour, my SURFACE DECORATION class was having a fun class without me!!! Luckily, I planned ahead and pre-made some bowls & cylinders for them to play with. And then I also scheduled the best sub teacher ever… Catherine Tweedie with her best water etching demo ever!!! Basically painting patterns with wax resist… and then wiping away the “unprotected” areas to remove a layer of clay or colored slip. It can create some great images, as well as some depth & texture. From the photos she sent me, it looks like they all had a great time. Now I can’t wait to see their masterpieces in real life!!!

In addition to my piñata cupcakes… our “real” baker Martin also celebrated CAKE WEEK with yummy slices of his coconut & mango cake! Cute in its individual box… but better presentation points when I took it home! Homemade food always tastes better on handmade pottery!

Last night in class we once again “celebrated” the next baker booted out of “The Great American Baking Show.” Our own baker Martin survived another episode… but sadly Jon was sent home after making this cute piñata cake. And since he was “my player” in the game… it was my turn to bring in treats based on Jon’s baking endeavors!!!

While I might “allegedly” be in Minneapolis already to play & shop at this weekend’s St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour… I wouldn’t want my SURFACE DECORATION class to miss me too much tonight. So I’ve set them up with my favorite sub, and her best demo ever!!! And I even pre-made some pieces for them to “play with” in class! Can’t wait to see what Catherine does with them as they tackle “water etching” tonight! Sadly, without me…

This week in my SURFACE DECORATION class… we did a bit of simple faceting. Basically throwing “thick-ish” walled cylinders, slicing through them… and in some cases, re-throwing from the inside to bulge them out a bit. We also did some throwing with marbled clay… but my hands were too gooey with three colors of clay to get any good photos! Maybe after we do a little trimming to reveal the marbling better???

This past Thursday in my SURFACE DECORATIONS class, we started working with color… and transferring underglaze “doodles” onto our pots. The idea is you can draw your pattern on newsprint, let it dry, and then transfer it to your pot by wetting it… kinda like a temporary tattoo when you were a kid. We found that some of the simpler line drawing with thinner underglazes worked better.

I tried one with layers of colored underglazes… but the green was kinda gloppy… and smudged when applied. Pretty cool technique… but we’ve all got a lot of practice to do if we want to “perfect” our technique?!

So… word on the street says that a new season of THE GREAT AMERICAN BAKING SHOW will be begin streaming next Friday on ROKU. For all those people who LOVE the British version… this one has American bakers in the same white tent with the same judges!!! But here’s the kicker… ONE of the bakers is actually a student in one of my pottery classes this session! Can’t wait to see how this show plays out… drama under the tent… and to see how my student does in the competition!!! Truth be told… now I expect better treats in class too!!!

Plus, I apologize in advance for the “bad photos”… it was the best I could “screen grab” from the teaser trailer!

After class last Tuesday, I spent a little more time with my class demo bowls. Just did a little more stamping & detailing… making the bowls even more not-so-basicER!!!

And for now, they’re back under plastic for the night… going to have a LOT of trimming to do pretty soon!

Another fun demo for my Tuesday night class… teaching my Beginner’s how to “throw bowls on purpose, and NOT cylinders gone bad.” So I taught them basics of how a good bowl starts at the very beginning when you’re opening up your lump of clay on the wheel. We talked about how to get a nice smooth interior curve… without any indents or “beginner’s ledge” as we like to call it.

After showing them all how to make bowls with intention, my students when back to their wheels… while I threw a few more! The plan is to bring them back together after making my bowls so we can discuss how to make the bowls more special. I tell them that basically the wheel did all the work for them… making it nice & round & smooth. But now it’s up to them to start decorating & making it their own. So my demo is just a chance to offer up some fun options for them to “play more with their clay.”

After making my plain bowls… we moved on to the fun part of the demo!

Bowl #1 – Two fluted indentations… quick & easy… no one ever said the rim needs to stay round!

Bowl #2 – And if two fluted edges are good… maybe eight flutes are better?!

Bowl #3 – A flared out flange… basically folding down the upper rim to lay it flat.

Bowl #4 – A flared out flange and a fluted rim combined on one bowl.

Bowl #5 – If a flared rim is nice, maybe a wider rim is even nicer?

Bowl #6 – Our first split rim bowl… this one with two indents. My plan is to add a handle up & over to create a “basket” bowl.

Bowl #7 – Another split rim… this time indented on four sides.

Bowl #8 – Another split rim… dented in four times, and dented out four times!

Bowl #9 – Another split rim bowl with eight quick pinches around the rim.

Bowl #10 – A textured “flower” or “snowflake” at the bottom of the bowl using a metal dragonscaling tool.

After altering the first ten bowls, we moved on to a discussion about adding colored slip to their projects. How & when to do it… as well as what they might do with it later. We discussed more dramatic glazing over the textures… as well as sgraffito & other carving techniques.

Bowl #11 – A thick layer of white slip… and then a spiral made by dragging my wood knife through the slip while the bowl was rotating on the wheel.

Bowl #12 – Thick white slip with fingertip squiggles while the wheel is spinning.

Bowl #13 – Thick white slip with vertical marks created by dragging a plastic rib through the slip.

Bowl #14 – Thick white slip with rhythmic chattering marks.

Bowl #15 – Then we added a color, and made some ombre’ blended colors.

Bowl #16 – Ombre’ blends are nice… but add a spiral to make it more fun!

And for now they’re up in my studio under some plastic. I’ll give them a little time to stiffen up… and then “quite possibly” do a little stamping & detailing before trimming the bottoms.

And then last night after “stamping”… we continued on to “sprigging.” Kind of the opposite of stamping in a weird sort of way. Basically it’s pressing clay into a textured mold, and then popping out a little “medallion” of clay to score & slip and attach to the bowl. So the sprigs kind of turn into “inverted-stamps” creating a fun texture pattern wherever you choose to place them. All from one little handmade sprig mold… and more fun for my SURFACE DECORATION class last night!