Last night in my SURFACE DECORATION class we all tackled stamping as their technique-du-jour! Not only did I bring down my pre-made bowls for them to play with… but I also brought some of my own handmade stamps! So we talked about some fun stamping techniques… and then I set them loose to do their own stamping!!!

For tonight’s SURFACE DECORATION class we’re tackling stamping & sprigs! Shocker, right? I mean… it was bound to happen at some point!

And I figured it would be a lot more “fun” for them if they had a blank surface to play with in class tonight. Can’t wait to see what they do with these plain bowls?!

Last night in class, my Beginning Wheel students tackled their first cylinders with some trimming & handles to finish their first mugs!!! Not too shabby for Week 3… more fun to come!!! Well done team!

Last week in my classes we may have had a few “yellow towels situations”… and there “may” have been some of the new Blackout Cake OREO’s being enjoyed! Allegedly…

Last night in my SURFACE DECORATION class, we tackled textures & patterns created by “bulging” out the side walls of a straight-sided cylinder. To make it even more fun, we also played with colored slips, texture tools & sodium silicate for that fun crackled effect. Always fun to see my students trying the “tricks” after my demo!

Last night was the first class with my SURFACE DECORATION students. We decided to “ease into it” with some surface basics… making nice pots & then playing with some thick white slip to create fun textures & patterns. Looking forward to revisiting these later to “play” with some glaze combos to accentuate the groovy textures.

For the final class of my Intermediate Wheel class this session, we decided to do a trading-stealing-exchanging-White Elephant kind of game… with the category being large serving bowls. We had so many beautiful bowls in the mix… that all got mixed up, traded up & each went home to new homes!

Maya has been in my Intermediate Wheelthrowing class for awhile now… still working on her platters! Her plan is to do a “constellation” installation at home of about a dozen large platters all with a theme of leaves… but done in different sizes & surface decoration techniques! Can’t wait to continue this journey with Maya when she returns for my Spring class too!

You know how my students “love” a good challenge… so my Intermediate Wheel class once again asked for a “fun” challenge project to work on throughout last session. I decided to challenge them with “Stacking Mugs.” A set of four or more matching mugs that stack well… and have some sort of design that ties them all together when stacked, but still look cool individually. I think they all stacked up quite nicely!

One of my Beginning Wheel students had a glaze run & some kiln wash on the bottom of her bowl. She was trying her best to get it off… and then I offered up my DiamondCore Grinding Bat for Carly to borrow. We put it on her wheel, wet the pot & the bat… and then spun really fast & pressed the bowl down!!! Voila’… smooth & clean! One of the best tools ever… thank you DiamondCore!!!