This week in my Beginning Wheel class, we discussed how to make a “bowl on purpose” instead of a cylinder gone bad. I did a throwing demo for them… and then I made a “few” more bowls as Part One of the demo!!! But the fun part comes with Part Two!!!
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Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play |
This week in my Beginning Wheel class, we discussed how to make a “bowl on purpose” instead of a cylinder gone bad. I did a throwing demo for them… and then I made a “few” more bowls as Part One of the demo!!! But the fun part comes with Part Two!!!
So here’s a little glaze dilemma!!!
One of my Intermediate Wheel students is working on an installation piece with multiple platters on the wall. She’s been working on them for awhile… but brought this one to me asking what happened to her glaze there in the middle?! Maya didn’t do anything different here… so why this rectangular blemish in the middle of her platter???
Anyone… anyone?… Bueller, Bueller???
So this platter had a crack around the footring. Maya asked me if she could still glaze fire it as a glaze test… to make sure she likes the combo for the replacement platter she’s going to make. I said sure, but maybe you should put a note on it so the kiln loaders don’t reject it because of the crack.
Looks like the fired the platter WITH THE NOTE STILL ON IT!!!
You can practically see the lines of her handwriting “fused” into the glaze!!! I guess maybe next time her note should also remind them to remove the note BEFORE firing the piece?!
This week in my Intermediate Wheelthrowing class, one of my students continued her “quest” for the perfect doughnut… oversized, wheelthrown & frosted with colored slip! Kelly made one last session and it turned into a vase with a bite out of it for the flower hole. Can’t wait to see where these go… although I keep telling her that I’ll take a full Baker’s Dozen please!!!
Looks like Ashley is giving her new tulipiere a little test run at home! Sure, they may not be tulips?… but this flower arrangement looks AMAZING!!! I love when a pottery “challenge” in class comes together and something beautiful like is the result. Nicely done Ashley… we love it!
Sweet treat when one of your favorite students stops by your studio with a sweet snack while I was working late last night… I mean, who doesn’t want a chocolate chip s’mores cookie?! Thanks Katie!!!
Tonight in my Intermediate Wheelthrowing class, we finished off the session by sharing some finished vases. They had asked for a class “challenge”… and I gave them a TULIPIERES!!! During the session, several of them tackled building their own tulipiere vases! Clara went for three sections stacked with a mini vase on top! Christine made one piece with a beautiful blue & red glaze. Ashley combined her wheelthrown oval bases with extruded tubes. And I provided the fake tulips… I thought that was the most I could do!!!
So here’s a few more pictures of Clara’s tulipiere…
And here’s a few more picturs of Chritine’s tulipiere…
Plus, a few more shots of Ashley’s tulipiere…
We had a couple more who were tackling the tulipiere challenge… but ran into kiln issues and they weren’t quite done in time for class tonight!
And we may have “allegedly” had another YELLOW TOWEL moment… with the newest special flavor of OREO’s. They were good… very sweet… lots of filling. But then again my memories of neopolitan ice cream go along with scooping out only the chocolate flavor… and then being done with the rest!!! So the three “mixed-layered” flavors concept was a little new to me!!! HA!!!
Look who made another visit to my Tuesday night pottery class!!! Student “Nick the Vet” brought this little cutie back into class… and when the puppy pops out, all pottery kinda stops! I mean, how can my pottery demos compete with this little nugget??? Three weeks in a row… and you can tell he’s growing fast!!! Sadly, rumor has it we “may not” see him next week as Nick will be out-of-town!
Always willing to share my DiamondCore Tools with my students… especially when they do some crazy cool carvings like this lidded jar that Ari was working on in class! Crisp & clean carving lines for everyone!!!
So look who came to join us again for another week of my Tuesday night Beginning Wheel class! Yep… our little “abandoned-puppy-friend” was back for another week with our student & vet Nick who is caring for this little 5-week old cutie!
Also, my fellow teacher Chelsea had been having a tough week…
so he also supplied some much-needed PUPPY THERAPY!
Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
Lillstreet Studios ∙ 4401 North Ravenswood, Chicago, Illinois 60640 ∙ 773-307-8664 gary@firewhenreadypottery.com |