Last night in my Beginning Wheel class, we did another “trading-exchanging-stealing game” to celebrate our last class of the session… with a category of “Not-So-Basic Bowls.” After several rounds, I came away with this cutie by Allison. Underglaze dots… and a beautiful crazy-crazed clear glaze! Lillstreet has been reformulating some of their glazes… and I think this was made with one of the test batches!

It was a REAL Mugshot Monday in my Intermediate Wheel class this week. It was our final class of the session, and we ended with a great “trading-exchanging-stealing-white elephant” kind of game! With a category of four MATCHING MUGS!!! Almost everyone played along… even one student who didn’t quite get them glazed in time! And that is the set I got in the trade… with a promise from Kathy that she will glaze them for me soon!!! But she likes glazing almost as much as I do… NOT!!!

Christine’s Mugs

Darcy’s Mugs

Stephanie’s Mugs

Abena’s Mugs … which also STACK!!!

Maryana’s Mugs

D’s Mugs

Kathy’s UNGLAZED Mugs

And MY stamped mugs… and a brand new reveal “chambray blue” glaze!

I came into my summer camp room to find that some adult student from last night left us a little “present” in the splash pan of one of the wheels! And yet somehow the kids always get blamed for leaving a mess? They don’t even use that kind of clay!!!

Plus, I have confidence… and I would easily bank on my summer campers cleaning better than most!!! They’re great when it comes to clean-up. I just wish everyone followed Gary’s Summer Camp Rule #3… “Whatever mess you make, you WILL be cleaning up!” Adults included…

Last night with my Beginning Wheel class, we did some glazing… as well as a demo on how to throw taller & get evenly thin walls. I did my demo & explained how to do it… but there’s really only one way to really see how well you did. So I cut it in half!!!

So apparently… & inadvertently… one of my class demos tonight was to show my Intermediate Wheel students how to throw on a plastic bat with only ONE corner actually on the bat pin!!! Wait, what?!!!

Yes, I put the bat down on the chamois bat-grabber & proceeded to throw a well-centered little cylinder. Only after throwing did one of my students realize that only one corner was affixed on a bat pin!!! It was OFF the entire time! HA!!!

Yeah, great demo, huh???

So this week was “bowls on purpose, instead of cylinders gone bad” demonstration night for my Tuesday night Beginning & Advanced Beginning Wheelthrowing class. So we started by discussing what makes a good bowl… a nicely rounded interior, no beginner’s ledge, intentional rim, and all of the other things to watch out for!

So then I did a throwing demo for my students, and showed them how to make a nice bowl INTENTIONALLY, instead of a cylinder gone bad! After the demo session, my students all went back to their wheels to start practicing & making bowls of their own.

Meanwhile, I threw a bunch of bowls so that we could “play” with them later in class!!!

After my class had some time to throw their bowls, and I finished with mine…
we re-grouped at my demo wheel so that I could show them a few quick tricks & techniques to make their bowls “not-so-basic.” My feeling is pretty much that the wheel kinda makes a round bowl for you… but it’s up to each person to make it their own!!! So I just wanted to add a few “possibilities” to their arsenal of tricks to play with. So here they are…

Bowl #1 – Four fluted edges… and a nice spiral.

Bowl #2 – and if four fluted edges are good, maybe EIGHT are even better?!

Bowl #3 – A flared out flange… bent out over the edge to create a “wider” rim.

Bowl #4 – And if a one-inch flared flange is nice, maybe a larger one is even better?

Bowl #5 – Then I combined the flared flange with some fluted accents.

Bowl #6 – A split-rim pinched back together in eight places!

Bowl #7 – Another split-rim pressed-in on two sides. There’s “a very good chance” that there might be a handle up & over from pinched part to pinched part to make it a “basket” bowl.

Bowl #8 – Another split rim – pressed in on four sides to create a kind of quatrefoil effect.

Bowl #9 – Another split rim pressed in at four points, and pressed out at four points! Kind of a lotus pattern.

So after doing a bunch of altered rims, I introduced them to colored slip. And how they can use some “thick” slip to add some details & textures to their bowls.

Bowl #10 – A layer of thick white slip with a spiral dragged through from the center up & out.

Bowl #11 – Another layer of thick white slip with banded drag-throughs… and a good chance that there “might be” some carving to be done through the thicker bands.

Bowl #12 – Thick white slip with some finger painting… just some squiggles from my index finger.

Bowl #13 – Thick white slip with some fun chattered texture & patterns… rhythmic tapping with a rubber rib… up & down, round & round, from center to rim.

Bowl #14 – An ombre’ blend of white slip to black slip… and again, a “good chance” there might be some carving coming soon!

Bowl #15 – And ombre’ blend of thick white & black slips… and a finger squiggled through.

Bowl #16 – Thick black & white ombre’ blend– and then chattered through the slip.

And for now they’re all “resting” safely in my studio under a bunch of plastic. Like I said, there might still some additional work don on these to make them EVEN MORE “not-so-basic”!!! Maybe a little stamping, carving & detailing… possibly?… allegedly?…

In one of my classes, a student asked if they could borrow my stamps… and I said “no”… but I’ll show you how to make some of your own! I happened to have some of my MKM Pottery Tools with me in class, so we rolled some slabs, textured them with the handrollers… and then cut out sections of the pattern. We attached little nugget handles on the back, and then bisque-fired them. They now work as stamps… and they all had a great time in class “making their own stamps!!!

After painting the underglaze, my SURFACE DECORATION class wiped off the top surface of their waxed pots. It’s always exciting to see your pattern be “revealed” as you gently wash away the excess. Hopefully, after a good bit of wiping, the surface will be clean with underglaze only filling the carved lines & patterns. When finished, these cups can now dry & be bisque-fired. The wax will burn away, the underglaze will be firmly in place & it’s time to glaze like normal. Fine line drawings with inlaid underglaze… voila’… MISHIMA.

The next step of our “mishima” class was to paint the entire exterior with underglaze when the carving of patterns was done. Idea being that the underglaze will fill all of the carved lines… but just sit on top of the wax resist in areas where there is no carving.

Last week in my SURFACE DECORATION class, I provided some simple leatherhard cylinders so they could all practice our “mishima” technique for the night. They started by painting the exterior with wax resist. Once it dried, they then started to etch their designs into the cup. The idea is to carve through the wax & slightly into the clay. Then we will inlay some underglaze into the fine line carvings. More to come…