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?!

We started a new session of my beginning wheelthrowing class tonight! New session, new students… new flavor… same “yellow towel situation”!!!

While the new class session starts this week, I found these pictures from last session… when one of my Intermediate Wheel students was working on decorating this large platter. Maya has been working on making a collection of large platters to install on her wall at home. They all have a “leaf motif”… like this one with fresh oak leaves pressed onto her platter, painted with thick white slip… and then the leaves removed to leave natural impressions & patterns. Beautifully done Maya!!!

After wiping away the excess underglaze, my SURFACE DECORATION students were left with cylinders with great “illustrations” incised into their cylinders highlighted with colorful underglaze. These will now dry & be bisque-fired… and then glazed. It was a great way for my class to wrap-up after tackling several different techniques over the past 10-weeks. Thanks for playing everyone!

After letting the underglaze set-up a bit in the carved areas, we gently wiped away the excess that was sitting on top of the wax resist… carefully leaving as much underglaze in the carved lines as possible.

After carving their mishima patterns, my SURFACE DECORATION students then painted the waxed surfaces with colored underglazes. The idea is that the underglaze can “fill” the carved patterns, but will sit on top of the wax everywhere else!

Last night we celebrated the end of our SURFACE DECORATION class with one last technique… MISHIMA. First we painted the surface with a layer of wax resist. Once dry, we carved designs into the clay with sharp-tipped tools… with the plan of carving through the wax & into the clay. Such focus… such determination…

So tonight is the last class for my SURFACE DECORATION students. Sure, we could sit back, relax & potluck… but instead I told them we have one more surface decoration technique to tackle!!! MISHIMA.

I told them to bring some leatherhard cylinders to class as part of their homework. And I told them that I would NOT be providing pre-made cylinders for them to practice on this time!!!

Okay… so maybe I lied.

So tonight we’re finishing out my Intermediate Wheelthrowing class with a BANG!!! Celebrating the Top Three & the Big Finale of THE GREAT AMERICAN BAKING SHOW! Slight spoiler… my student Martin is still in the Top Three!!! And we’ll be “revealing” the BIG WINNER later with a real “spoiler” if you haven’t watched yet. But first, what kind of party isn’t more fun with some GOLDen CORN?!!! More details to come…

After the class discussion & demo about sgraffito, my SURFACE DECORATION class set-off to decorate their own pieces. The goal was to get crisp clean lines & patterns carved through the dark layer of slip or underglaze to reveal the lighter clay body. They really enjoyed using my collection of DiamondCore Tools to get some crisp & clean carving lines. The perfect way to let their creative expressions reveal themselves!