Last night in pottery class we had another version of our favorite OREOs… gluten-free! So they tasted a little “different” and maybe a little “chalky”???… but the double amount of filling made up for it! Thanks for bringing the treats Elena!

WE LOVE DOUBLE-STUFFED!!!

So tonight’s class demo was stacked two-part vase! I threw a 4-pound bottom cylinder, and then another 4-pound top cylinder that was bottomless. After they set-up a bit, I scored & slipped them & attached the two halves. Smoothed out the connection seam… then tried to smooth it out & reshape it into a nice, tall vase shape.

As I told my class, I would have liked to have the clay set-up a lot longer. But for class demo timing, we decided to go for it even though we all knew the clay was far to wet to hold up. So when the bottom section started to squish as we knew it would, we decided to cut it in half to see how thick the walls were. And I think it looks pretty good… nice thin & even walls… but you can clearly see how wet & squishy the clay was! We all knew it should have set-up more… but sometimes it’s fun to show a “fail” demo too!!!

So fun to watch one of your students “find their voice” & develop their own style in your class. Kristen has truly blossomed in her surface decoration skills. I let her borrow a few of my newest DiamondCore Tools and look what she did with them! Great details with great tools! Looks like Kristen might need to start expanding her tool collection with some more DiamondCore Tools of her own!!!

So not only did we have “imported” OREO’s in class… we also had beautiful little OREO BOWLS for our mint OREO’s!!! One of my students made these cute little bowls with underglaze transfer patterns that were perfect for a single serving of OREO’s… or, you could refill it as many times as needed!!! Thanks for sharing your bowls Darcy!

In my Intermediate Wheelthrowing class we had a CRAZY NIGHT OF OREO’s!!! It started with a collection of Chinese OREO’s…. brought in by Catherine! As with most non-American OREOs, they were a bit drier, chalkier(?) & not quite as sweet. So we had some kind of plain yogurt OREOs, mango cream OREOs, cherry blossom OREOs & peach with oolong tea OREO’s.

Let’s not get crazy… we also had American Mint OREO’s to wash them all down!!!

After they knocked out the lidded jar project, I knew they would be up for an even bigger & better challenge! So I pulled out the blindfolds (and towels?) and I challenged Summer Campers last week to wheelthrowing while blindfolded. I think they were a little anxious at first, but quickly realized it’s not as hard as it sounded. As long as you take it step-by-step, you realize that you can throw just my touch & muscle-memory. And they all did a GREAT job… and had so much fun that they asked if they could do it AGAIN!!!

Of course I said YES!!!

Last week at Summer Camp I had a group of teenagers. All of them had wheelthrown at last once before… so I knew it was going to be a fun week. They re-learned & practiced throwing on Monday & Tuesday, trimmed & decorated on Wednesday. But it was Thursday when I challenged them to making lidded jars! Yep, full-on lidded jars… complete with caliper-measured lids AND throwing off-the-hump. And they totally rocked it out!!!

Last week in my Beginning Wheel class, we talked about “making bowls on purpose instead of a cylinder gone bad.” I dd a demo and we talked about getting that perfect curve on the inside of your bowls… throwing the interior with intention and then trimming the outside to match alter.

Once we had talked about the first bowl… my students then went back to their wheels to start throwing. While they were throwing, I continued to make some more bowls too. After I had made several of them, we re-grouped for another bowl demo.

This time with some tricks & tips on how to make some “not-so-basic bowls”!!! We did some quick alterations, some rim refinements & even some colored slip applications. No one ever said that bowls need to be round, right?!

Bowl #1 – This was the original “prototype”… where all of the bowls began!!!

Bowl #2 – Two simple fluted twists.

Bowl #3 – And if two are good, eight flutes might be better!

Bowl #4 – A thin flare flange.

Bowl #5 – A wider flared flange.

Bowl #6 – A split rim with eight places pinched back together.

Bowl #7 – Another split rim with four areas dented inwards.

Bowl #8 – Another split rim with four areas dented inwards, and another four dented outwards… kind of a “lotus” pattern. Can you tell I’m kinda infatuated with the while split rim process?

After altering some of the basic bowls, it was time to introduce some thick slip as a decorative option. I chose “thick” white slip so I could get some good textures from the slip for the glaze to pool & puddle on later.

Bowl #9 – A layer of thick white slip, with the curved end of my wooden knife dragged through to create the dramatic spiral.

Bowl #10 – Thick white slip covering the interior… with a rubber rib used to drag some lines through.

Bowl #11 – Thick white slip with some rhythmic chattering to create the pattern.

Bowl #12 – An ombre’ blend of thick white & iron red slips.

Bowl #13 – White & iron red slips again… with some rhythmic chartering going through it.

After the demo, we cleaned up & I brought the bowls up to my studio to keep them covered with plastic for the night… as there “just might be” some stamping & detailing still to come!

This past Monday night in my Intermediate Wheelthrowing class, we discussed how to throw with a bit more “intention”… and how to approach throwing “matching sets.” I offered up a few options… as one of their class challenges is to bring two “matching” bowls to our final class as few weeks from now! One of my best suggestions is to throw a few extras that are “similar” and then decorate & trim them to make them match even more… and then pick the two that match the best!!! I went with four… hoping to get two that match!!!

Last night my Wheelthrowing Beginners trimmed & added handles to make their first mugs with me! Not bad for their second class of the new Summer session, huh?!