Spent much of yesterday “laboring” in my studio. Finished glazing & loading 694 tiles!!! Many of which will become part of the collaboration fun I’m doing with Cory McCrory for next weekend’s ART IN THE GARDEN.

And sure, I probably could have gotten ONE more tile squeezed in there… if it weren’t for that glaze splotch that somebody left on the kiln shelf from a previous firing. Usually I’m okay with chipping them off. But this one’s a deep one best saved for another day! And what’s ONE more tile really in the big scheme of things?!

I better NOT be one tile short when it comes to assembling our collaboration pieces!

So this is just a quick reminder of what the bowls looked like after I glazed them with bubbles.
If you missed the earlier blog post explaining the whole process, just scroll back a bit.

And this is what the same bowls look like AFTER the cone 10 gas reduction  firing.
I must admit that I’m “pleased” with the results… but not thrilled. I like the effect. I like the process. I like the fun of playing with bubbles. I just think that I would have preferred a different base glaze choice. The glaze sample I was looking at was on stoneware with iron. My bowls were made with B-Clay. I didn’t take that into consideration during our class demo. So in my mind I was expecting the base glaze to be an orangey-rust-color like the sample… and not a crystal grayish-white shino!. Not that this is bad, it’s just not what I had pictured in my mind.

Base glaze of Lau Shino and glaze bubbles of Temoku.

Base glaze of Lau Shino and glaze bubbles of Rutile Blue.

Base glaze of Lau Shino and glaze bubbles of Antique White.

So when there’s a new trick or technique “revealed” at Lillstreet, it takes the place by storm. And the latest craze as I mentioned a few days ago is the “glazing with bubbles” technique that seems to be all the rage. Thanks to Dave & Will for kickstarting the craze. Seems like everyone is doing this technique now… so I figured it was “my duty” to share and teach my students last night how to do it.

So I had bubble glazed my first demo bowl… and then realized I should be photographing the process to share here on the blog. So here’s the process on our second demo bowl. I start with a good “base” first coat of dipped glaze.

Then we put a little bit of glaze into a plastic cup, and added some DAWN dishwashing liquid.
And then stirred it up. Tough recipe, huh?! We didn’t measure anything!!!

And then blow into the mixture with a straw… or in our case, an empty ballpoint pen casing.

If the bubbles don’t seem to be piling up enough, just add a little more liquid soap.

Blow again… but remember to blow OUT, and to not inhale through the straw. That could get ugly!

Then once you have a good “head” of bubbles in the cup, scoop them out with your bare hands and place them on your pot. We tried to gently lay them in without popping too many bubbles. Depending on where you’re at in the bowl, sometimes it works to lay, others needed to be pressed on.

Inside and out… but trying to avoid wet glaze drips at the same time!

And voila’ …  a groovy, patterned & textured glaze on the bowl. No telling how many bubbles “should” be put on? How many are too many? It’s all very random. Let’s just hope it turns out okay in the firing?

We were kinda on a roll… so we tackled a third one too. Stacey had made a cup of bubbled glaze for her pot, so I just used her leftover liquid on my third demo bowl. Simple enough… blow, bubble, scoop, place. Repeat. The bubbles pop over time and leave a great lace-ish pattern behind.

I think we may have added a bit too much soap to this batch… the bubbles were pretty darn thick!
Maybe the thicker the bubble the denser the glaze coverage?! We’ll see!

But we just scooped up the thicker suds and continued placing them on the bowl – both inside and out.

So now I’ve got three class demo bowls glazed with the new bubble process.
Hopefully we’ll get some good results… beautiful bowls… and good photos to post here!

Bowl #1 – Temoku glaze bubbles on top of the base layer of Lau Shino glaze.

Bowl #2 – Rutile Blue glaze bubbles on top of the base layer of Lau Shino glaze.

Bowl #3 – Antique White glaze bubbles on top of the base layer of Lau Shino glaze.

Another class glazing demo done and waiting to go into the kiln.
Fingers crossed… photos to come!

We’ll see how these bowls turn out after the cone 10 reduction firing.
And yes, I will be sure to post photos for you to see the results too!!!

Last night was the last night of the Summer session of my Tuesday night Beginning Wheel pottery class. It’s been a great ten-weeks of fun for the students. Each of them has made great advancements in their throwing. So we celebrated with a very sweet potluck, and a fun “Plate Exchange Game.” Everyone had to bring in a plate they had made during class to trade & exchange with someone else. Everyone brought in a plate and left with a different one.

By the end of the shenanigans, Catherine had my amber celadon stamped plate, and I ended up with this sweetie from my student Diane. She has been a “pottery sponge” every step of the way this session. Whether it has been tackling every demo, or finding as many new techniques as possible on YouTube, Diane has been cranking out some fun pieces all session long. This plate was thrown with Stoneware With Ochre for the dark chocolatey finish. She used a simple dragonscale tool for the pattern on the rim. After bisque firing, she inlaid temoku glaze in the pattern and gently wiped off the top surface – effectively leaving the temoku only in the deeper stamped recesses. She waxed the entire rim and then dipped the plate in an apple green celadon glaze for the center food surface. I love the pattern, and the shiny metallic-ness of the rim. It was so much fun having Diane in class… and watching her pottery adventure “unfold” every week. Nicely done Diane… can’t wait to have you back again next year during your teacher’s summer break!

So even took great glazing notes in her “adorable” handcrafted journal…
I would have expected nothing less!

One of my students was thrilled to find her pot on the Student Show-Off Shelves.
It was an experiment of glazing with bubbles! Thanks to Dave & Will for introducing this new technique… which has now become “all the rage.”

Congrats Katie!!! Your bowl looks fantastic!

FYI… Full blog post to come… hold your horses…

Today the kids came back to see how much their Monday plates had dried. Now they need to make the rest of their pieces AND glaze everything by the end of the day. Starting off with a discussion of how INCREDIBLY FRAGILE their plates are at this stage. And that if something breaks off now that they’re dry there is NO WAY to put it back together. I like to put a tiny bit of fear in them so they will work with a little extra care & patience. I tell them that if something breaks off at this point, it’s either gone for good or they need to make a replacement piece!!!

We only had one overnight casualty. One of the plates dried too fast and cracked right through the center. And then when I moved it to the table, the tail popped right off into my hand. Not a good sign. So I quickly made the “base” of another fish plate for her, and she did the detailing when she got in. Problem solved. Back up to speed. And that brass dragonscale tool that sits in my toolbox came in really handy to make some fish scales!!!

After they finished building the last of their pieces, they all began painting them with our Teacher’s Choice brand glazes. They’re a simple collection of colored glazes that work really well on these kids projects. It’s so much fun to see their monochromatic plates & cups come to life in color… knowing that they’ll get even better & more vibrant after they’re fired.

And “somehow”… I don’t know how, but “SOMEHOW”… the kids start a discussion and decide “all by themselves” that we should have a Chocolate Chip Cookie Bake-Off Contest tomorrow. Brilliant idea. On their part. And who am I to say no?!! I would never want to dash their dream & desires especially when there will be a lot of cookies in it for ME!!! So glad they thought of this idea all by themselves… with just a smidge of coaxing by me… a smidge… maybe a tiny bit… allegedly.

So if there’s going to be a contest… of course we need a BEST COOKIE TROPHY!!!
So I threw this little ditty together for the winner!

Swing by Hinsdale this weekend for the Hinsdale Fine Arts Festival.
I’ll be there in Booth #100 with plenty of handmade, decorative & functional pottery. Mostly stamped & soda-fired, but also some of these new, bright pops of color!!! We’re there from 10:00am-5:00pm both days. Hope to see you there.

Fresh from the kiln… three new stamped platters!!! Bright colors. Big fun.
On their way to the Hinsdale Fine Arts Festival this weekend.
Saturday & Sunday in Burlington Park from 10:00am-5:00pm.

Glazed & loaded another kiln today.
This time, a cone 6 firing for a quick pop of color.
Just in time for the Hinsdale Fine Arts Festival next weekend.