After Tuesday’s class demo, I now find that I have a table full of not-so-basic bowls.
But you know my motto… MORE IS MORE.
So why not do a little more stamping & detailing?! So I did…

And for now they’re all stamped & detailed…
and going back under wraps so I can come back tomorrow to trim them all!

Last Tuesday night I did my favorite demo for my wheelthrowing pottery class…
BOWLS ON PURPOSE… and not a cylinder gone bad!

I started by showing them all how to make a nicely rounded bowl from the git-go. Establishing the interior curve right from the start. Compressing the curve. Never letting an indented groove-ledge happen while pinching & lifting the clay. The using a plastic rib to flare it our and make a nice smooth curve. After that first demo, I “released” them all so they could get to working… making bowls! Meanwhile, I threw a full bag of clay to make nineteen bowls. I then called them all back to Part Two of the demo. This is when I encourage them to “play with their clay”… and tot try new techniques to alter & decorate their simple wheelthrown forms. To show them some quick tricks & techniques to give them some ideas of what they can do…and to show them that there are a million options… just try something! Have fun!!!

Bowl #1 – Here’s the basic bowl… simple spiral… the basis of all the bowls to come!

Bowl #2 – Tweaked – just two simple finger twists on opposite sides. Simple. Cute.

Bowl #3 – Fluted. If two tweaks are cute, maybe eight flutes are better?

Bowl #4 – Narrow Flange – Just an inch of the rim flared out to widen the bowl.

Bowl #5 – Wide Flange – If a narrow rim is good, maybe a wider flange is better?

Bowl #6 – Flared & Fluted. Combining the flared out flange and the fluted tweaks!

Bowl #7 – Stamped Bottom. A surprise in the bottom made with a metal dragon-scaling tool.

 

Bowl #8 – Cloverleaf – Dented in on fours sides to create a clover shape.

Bowl #9 – Pinched Split-Rim. First I split the rim using the pointed end of my wooden knife, and then pinched it back together in eight places.

Bowl #10 – Split-Rim Lotus. Another split-rim bowl… but then dented in & dented out.

Bowl #11 – Crazy Churro – We started with a triple split-rim… but then I dented it accidentally,,, so I dented it more, and altered the shape to “camouflage” my first mistake. It got a little crazy… but might lead to something else?

Bowl #12 – Squared – I dented four corners and then flattened the sides in.

Bowl #13 – Overlapped. I cut through the sides of the bowl, and then overlapped the edges to close it in a bit more.

After altering the shapes, I decided ti was time to introduce the option of suing colored slips as a decoration technique.

Bowl #14 – White Slip Spiral. I covered the entire interior with white slip, and then dragged through the slip as it was rotating on the wheel.

Bowl #15 – Banded. Another white slip covered bowl, this time banded with the rounded end of my wooden knife.. The Potter’s Thumb.

Bowl #16 – Chattered. A complete layer of thick white slip, chattered through with a green rubber rib. Rhythmic tapping of the rib through the slip as it was spinning in the wheel.

Bowl #17 – Ombre. A blended color slip mixing white and blue Mazzerine slips

Bowl #18 – Ombre Squiggle. Another ombre blend, but then sguiggled with the rounded end of my wooden knife.

Bowl #19 – Splattered. A full layer of blue Mazzerine slip, and then a quick splatter of white slip… I had intended to do more, but the squeeze bottle got clogged. And my students all thought this looked great. So we stopped with one good splatter!

After class, I brought all of the bowls back up to my studio. They’re now under plastic as their is
a very good chance” that there might just be some more stamping & detailing that happens to these bowls before they’re done! Allegedly…

 

 

 

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Last night in my pottery class, my students tackled their toughest challenge yet…
figuring out the newest “mystery flavor” of OREOs!!!

Definitely a touch of cinnamon… so our top guesses were cookie butter… churros…
windmill cookies… or my favorite guess by Susaanna…

So last night in my Tuesday night pottery class we “may” have had too many OREO’s… if that is even a thing?! Patty “imported” some from her recent travels… Banadas from Portugal, and the Bites & JoyFills from Finland. Kate brought in the rest of the “repeat” treats! Too many to finish in our three-hour class… but we sure gave it a valiant effort!

And oh, but wait there’s more… Dan brought back a sweet “souvenir” to share with the class. It was kind of a layered chocolate fudge, peanut butter & OREO cookie chunk of yumminess!!!… YES, PLEASE!!!

Well, tonight was the first night of the Fall Session of my pottery wheelthrowing class at Lillstreet… so it only seemed fitting when one of my students brought in these yummy “Fall” treats!!! Thanks Jacob!!!

We woke up early somewhere in the middle of Ohio.
Broke into the second Amish pie… showered and got ready to go.
Repack the car… gear, bike, bags. It’s amazing how much stuff the two of us had
with us for just a week’s trip! And some pie…

In the morning light, we could see that the Day’s Inn was pretty old & tired. But it didn’t matter all that much. I slept well in the bed and that’s really all that mattered. But you could see that the town it was in was kind of closing down, and parts of the hotel obviously were too. Like the pool that looks like it’s been closed for quite awhile… and I’m guessing will never open again!

But the shining morning bright spot was the complimentary breakfast…
and let me just say, I think Aunt Jemima and I are dating now!!!

I mean really, who doesn’t LOVE freshly homemade waffles?!
And after race day you feel like you can eat ANYTHING!!! So I did… twice…
hot fluffy waffles with peanut butter & syrup! Yum!

As we were leaving the little town, Chris decided that this shot might “compensate” for her lack of “Welcome” signs in Pennsylvania & Ohio. Sure, this is a welcome sign, but it’s more fun to keep saying she just missed the other ones!!!

And then the storm clouds moved in again… again, so glad this weather didn’t hit us in Lake Placid. We totally lucked out with AMAZING weather in Lake Placid!!!

At some point, the drive is just that… a drive. And you just drive, and drive, and drive…
Chris is a trooper. And lucky for me, she would rather drive than be the passenger!
And I was more than welcome to oblige!

We did find it funny in Ohio that they are so big into their directional highway arrows!
Like they REALLY want to make sure you’re staying on the right path!!!

And then finally we made it to Cleveland… the “Mistake On The Lake.”

Oh look… the sun was coming back out… and so did the Amish pies!!!

Beautiful blue skies and plenty of farm fields as we were smack dab in the Midwest!
Gotta love good cornfields, soy fields, orchards & vineyards!!!

“Holy Toledo Batman!”

And then more farms… more fields… more clouds & blue skies!

Soon enough we were running out of gas… and we didn’t quite notice it until it was getting REALLY close. Chris has been so good the whole trip to try and refuel whenever we got close to a 1/4 tank. But somehow this time… the “range” of how far you can still go on the gas you have left in the tank went to NOTHING!!! Uh oh…

Luckily, the Service Center was pretty close… pretty sure we could roll in on fumes if we had to! But we didn’t – all good. Made it in easily, re-fueled… and re-filled with more food for lunch!!!

And then more farms… more fun.

Soon enough I had to rub it in… and “prove to Chris” and rub it in a bit more…
that you can indeed get a photo of the Welcome Sign!!!

We were group texting with our friends and one of them pointed out that we were going to cross the time change soon… giving us an “extra” hour… thanks Nancy! We were kind of on a mission to get home as I needed to teach my Tuesday night class at 7:00pm. But the “extra” hour gave us a few options… like searching for Amish pies in Goshen, Indiana. Huge thanks to Rose for dropping that hint… AMISH… PIE!!!

We searched through Goshen, but didn’t find much in the way of Amish. No horse. No buggy. No pie. So we followed some signs and ended up in Shipshewana. Much better right away as the horse & buggies were all around!

And even better… Amish bakery… with LOTS of homemade PIES!!!
If all goes well, this big cherry pie will make it’s way to share with my pottery class tonight!

But it wasn’t just about PIE… as Chris couldn’t resist a package of sugar cookies!
This feeding frenzy has GOT TO STOP!!! But when we get home… not now…

Soon enough… we started seeing signs for Chicago!!! YIPPEE!!!

And in true Chicago fashion.. Welcome to Illinois…. Welcome to Construction!
Even worse, all of these pylon cones and NO construction anywhere to be seen!!!

Then we made it to Gary, Indiana… “The Armpit of the Midwest.”
All too soon the beauty of the rural farms was gone!!!

Back over the Skyway Toll Bridge… and back towards Chicago!!!

Okay, Gary, Indiana might not be too nice, but some of the industrial pieces, parts & architecture are pretty darn cool.

We finally made it back to my place. We unpacked my stuff out of Chris’ car…
and put her stuff back in . Still a LOT of gear. Especially when you need to shlep it all
up THREE FLIGHTS OF STAIRS… just two days after running a full IRONMAN!!!

I got everything upstairs… ran through the shower…
and then I was off to teach my 7:000pm Pottery Class!!! No rest for the weary!
And yes, of course I had to wear my Finisher’s shirt to class. Who wouldn’t?!

So I made it to my Pottery Class in time… with the cherry pie from Amishland Indiana!
Such a great way to finish off the Lake Placid Adventure!!! Sharing my stories & my accomplishments with my pottery class… most of who didn’t know I was even going for it again!

And here’s my other Lake Placid t-shirt…
and the one where they print everybody’s name on the back! Pretty cool…
almost 3,000 athletes listed alphabetically!!!

And yes, there I am in the top left corner of the M… see it?… there I am…

 

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As part of our last class, my students participated in a fun little “white elephant” trading-exchanging-stealing game with sets of two matching mugs. They received the challenge early on this session… and for the most part… everyone did an AMAZING job!!! There were just a couple who didn’t quite finish the challenge?!… but still played the game!

CHRISTINE’s set of matching mugs…

MICHELLE’s set of matching mugs…

KATE’s set of matching mugs…

PATTY’s set of matching mugs…

KATIE’s set of matching mugs…

CATHERINE’s set of matching mugs…

And a little close-up to show the subtle detail of Catherine’s glazing on porcelain.

JACOB’s set of matching mugs…

DAN’s set of matching mugs…

CASEY’s set of matching mugs…

TINA’s set of matching mugs…

Oh wait… just to show the scale of Tina’s teeny-tiny cutie-patooties…

DANIELLE’s’s set of matching mugs… with a wonderful theme… which coincidentally
& ironically is the set that I ended up with and took home with me last night.
It seemed only fitting!!!

ASHLEY’s set of matching mugs… err, well, just one.
The “matching” mug didn’t quite come out of the kiln in time.
So Ashley’s mug came with an IOU for the second one!

SUSAN’s set of matching mugs…
And yes, Susan is my teaching assistant… which explains the perfect set of matched porcelain mugs with a striking black underglaze geometric design!

JOSE’s set of matching mugs… oh well… a pretty little trio of blue bowls and not mugs?!

ALLISON’s set of matching mugs… err, a nice vase… as apparently Allison didn’t get her cups done in time. I know she’s made a lot of mugs this session, but apparently didn’t get her matching set done in time for class. I think time kinda slipped away from her!

All in all, a wonderful way to celebrate the last class of the session. They all did such a wonderful job. And stepped up to the challenge of “MATCHING” which is not an easy task to take on!

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Last night in my pottery class, my students pulled out all the stops with possibly the biggest potluck feast ever!!! We had a theme… retro flashback childhood favorites! I of course had to make my traditional birthday cake… “Mississippi Mud”… a decadent concoction that my Mom used to make every year for my birthday! Chocolate cake with coconut, a layer of marshmallow fluff and then a layer of fudge swirled on top!!!

And YES, I do have the palate of a four year old!!!

And for the record… the leftover cupcakes went to my Summer Campers today…
and the leftover cookies will come with me to camp tomorrow!!! Lucky kids!

Last night in my pottery class, my students rallied with a LOT of sweetness…
both with a sweet sympathy condolence card and a LOT of OREOs to sweeten the sorrow.