The Winter Session of classes begin at Lillstreet Art Center the second weekend of January.
And if you’re looking for a great Christmas gift… to give as a gift, or for yourself… you can
you can already sign-up for my Tuesday night class of Beginning Wheelthrowing!

Well technically it’s Beginning & “Advanced Beginning” which means return beginners are more than welcome. As well as brand new newbies, or people who may have played with clay a lifetime ago! Either way, the 10-week class will take your through the full process and give you lots of time to make your own treasures. Part of your class includes open studio access seven days a week!!!

Click here to register online, or stop by Lillstreet, or call to register over the phone.
But hurry up… my classes fill up fast!!!

It’s amazing how fast 10-weeks flies by!
Tonight was the final class for my Beginning Wheel students. They were busy finishing up their pots, snacking at our potluck, chatting, laughing & hanging out. Basically solving all the problems of the world. And good thing we had plenty of sweets to keep everyone happy… especially me!!! I’ve trained them so well…

We finished our class with a “bowl” exchange game.
At some point we expanded the definition of “bowl” to any “vessel” they’ve made. Guess some students didn’t quite finish a bowl?! Anyway, after our “exchanging-trading-stealing” game, I came home with a great mug by one of my repeat students Nadine!!!

Okay, so let me start this by saying I don’t eat oysters.
And I had never even heard of “oyster plates.” But when one of my repeat student requested I demo how to make one, I had to consider my options.

So I showed them how to throw this as one piece, with one ball of clay. So it’s kind of a chip & dip bowl, but this time I bent up the edges of the plate so as to give the oyster shells somewhere to “land” as the plate is served. My students seemed to like it as though I succeeded with my Demo-On-Demand.

And sure, it’s a little squishy right now… but I’ll do some touch-ups and detailing when they set-up a bit. Maybe tomorrow evening?! It’s under plastic right now overnight.

As I was leaving the studio tonight, I decided to exit through the classrooms to chat with friends and to see if I had any class demos that had come out of the kiln.

Well… I hate when this happens…

Apparently one of them did in fact come out of the kiln. It’s what happened next that I would love an explanation for. My slip demo plate was sitting on the bisqued cart just like this. In two pieces!!! It obviously got broken during the unload, or by a careless student. I understand accidents happen. But they could have at least left a note!

On the good side… at least we can see how even my throwing & trimming were… I guess we’ll chalk this one up to “another” demo. One that I didn’t plan on sharing.

We’re part way into the session, and my students are just now getting their first pieces back from the glaze kiln. They’ve been learning all the steps of the process. Wedging, centering, throwing, drying, trimming, drying more, bisque firing and glazing. And even though they are just now getting their very first pots from the first night of class,
the excitement is growing as they’ve all progressed so far since the beginning of this session!

Congratulations Claire! It’s a precious little beauty… and you’re well on your way to making even larger, even better pots! Keep up the good work.

Tonight I was the substitute teacher for the Beginning Soda Firing Class at Lillstreet. We discussed the basic firing process, how a kiln works, where the sweet spots are in the kiln… and basically tried to answer any & all of their questions. I know I gave them a lot of information. I hope I didn’t overwhelm them too much.

During our discussions, they expressed their concern & confusion of what all the soda flashing slips look like. So I suggested that we make some test tiles so they can see for themselves. And yet most of them also wanted to get some wheelthrowing time in too. So I made them a deal… if I make the test tiles, they needed to add the slip and keep track of the results. Deal done. Challenge accepted.

So here are my test tiles made out of soda clay…

And here are their class test tiles after Laury & Linda painted on some of the slips. We decided to make two test tiles for each color. One for a high soda area of the kiln, and the other for a low-soda area so they can see the difference. We also decided to leave half of the tiles plain clay just so they can see the contrast of colored slip against the raw clay color after firing.

I can’t wait to see how these test tiles turn out after firing in the new soda kiln! And I REALLY hope that this project helps these “new to soda firing” students understand a bit more about flashing slips!

Tuesday night I showed my class how to make larger bowls and platters.
I made three pieces for them… but I felt two of them needed a little somethin’-somethin’.
Tonight I pulled out some stamps and did a bit of decorating. So here goes…

Starting with the plain bowl that I threw Tuesday night. It was wrapped up under plastic and tonight it was on the “wetter-side” of leather heard. Perfect for stamping!

Once the bowl was all stamped, I moved on to stamp the platter too. So I found the stamp I wanted and began indenting one by one by one… all the way around!!!

Eventually both of these class demo pieces were stamped and done for the night. So I put them both back under plastic so they can dry a bit slower. I’m hoping that tomorrow I might be able to trim both of them.

Tonight’s class demo was larger bowls & larger platters from a larger ball of clay. Trying to get my students to push themselves a bit and try some bigger pieces. Looks like both of these might need a bit of stamping soon…

Then I did a quick two-tone slip squiggle demo on a second platter. I tried to blend some white slip with some ivy green slip… and dragged a round rib end through. While spinning the wheel. While squiggling back & forth. And voila!

Tonight in class we covered throwing bowls… bowls on purpose & not cylinders gone bad!
It’s my favortie demo every session. I start be doing the demo on how to throw a basic bowl. Explaining the difference between a bowl “on purpose”… with a nice smooth curve on the inside of the bowl. Not a flat bottom, corners and straight sides like a cylinder. Once we cover the basics of throwing a bowl, my students return to their wheels to give it a try. While they are tackling their first bowls… I sat down and continued to throw more bowls. It’s a full bag of clay… this time it came out to 15 bowls!!! Looks like Alexa was pretty excited!!!

After throwing the full set of bowls, I have my students come back for Part Two of my demo. That’s the part where I try to “convince” my students to play with their clay a bit more. To squish it, move it, bend it, alter it… and to realize that “it’s just clay.” So I show them some really quick tricks to make each of the round bowls somehow altered and somehow more special.

Bowl #1 – Two Fluted Points
A simple finger flick & twist… one finger inside, one finger outside and twist.

Bowl #2 – Eight Fluted Points
If two points are cool… maybe eight would be cooler?!

Bowl #3 – Flared Flange
Simply taking the top part of the bowl and bending it outward to create the flange.

Bowl #4 – Wide Flared Flange
If a flared rim is cool, maybe a wider flared rim would be even cooler?!

Bowl #5 – Combined Flared & Fluted
Flared first, then fluted at eight points.

Bowl #6 – Split Rim with Four Pinches
So I started by carefully splitting the rim in half with the tip of my wooden knife. I then pinched the split rim back together in four places. Conveniently, lined up with the four corners of my plastic bat for even spacing!

Bowl #7 – Split Rim with Four Pinches… and then re-shaped!
Another split rim, pinched in four places and indented to alter the shape.

Bowl #8 – Indented Rim at eight points… for a floral feeling.
Evenly indented in eight places to give the bowl a softer feeling.

Bowl #9 – Split Rim with Eight Pinches… and curved between pinches!
Another split rim, pinched together in eight places. And then pressed outwards between the pinched points to give a slight curved & undulating edge.

Bowl #10 – Split Rim with Eight Pinches… then indented and “out”dented.
So if it looks good to indent & curve the rim… maybe it would look cooler to add some indentations going the other way.

Bowl #11 – Slip Spiral
I covered the inside of the bowl with white slip, and then dragged the rounded end of my wooden knife through the slip while the wheel was spinning.

Bowl #12 – Slip Spiral, Banding & Solid Sections
Another layer of slip. Another “canvas” to drag my tool through to reveal the original base clay color. Sometimes a spiral, sometimes just banded. Both easy to do while still centered on the wheel.

Bowl #13 – Flared Flange with White Slip Decoration
More white slip around the flared flange. And then decorated by dragging the rounded end of my wooden knife through the slip.

Bowl #14 – Slip With A Stencil Design
A simple shape cut out of the newspaper. The dipped in water and carefully placed on the bowl interior. Gently pressed into place to seal the edges in place. Then covered with slip… and then the newspaper stencil piece is carefully pulled out.

Bowl #15 – Slip Chattering
This one’s my favorite! A simple coat of white slip. And a rythmic tapping of my curved rib as the bowl was spinning to create this groovy pattern. Once you start, you’ve got to commit and keep going!!!

After class ended, I carried all of the bowls up to my studio. Fifteen bowls balanced up a flight of stairs.
They pretty much filled my work table. Good thing I didn’t make more?!

I then wrapped them up with plastic to keep them damp. I will come back in the next day or two to add a few more details & stamping. And then they’ll all be trimmed, dried, fired, glazed & fired again. But for tonight… another fun demo for my beginning students… and another fun batch of BOWLS!!!

Tonight is the first night of the Fall session of classes at Lillstreet.
I’ve got a full class to start with the basics of wedging, centering & throwing.
And if I can’t get ’em with that… I’m sure some Oreo’s will help me win them over!!!