It was another productive day in the studio,
followed by another productive evening in the studio.

On my way out for the night, I got drawn into some hysterical discussions downstairs with Terry, Corkie, Donna, Marsha & Joe. I think I just might need to “play” downstairs a little more frequently. Especially after they’ve “had a few” and Joe just kept getting “smarter.” We covered more topics than you can imagine… and trust me, you don’t even want to know!!!

Register early, it’s filling up fast… I will be once again teaching my Tuesday night
“Beginning & Advanced Beginning Wheelthrowing Class” at Lillstreet Art Center.

So whether you’re a brand new beginner, have some previous experience, or you just want
to play in the clay… this is the class for you! It’s a 10-week class that covers all of the basics
and many special requests along the way. The new Fall session of my class begins on
Tuesday, September 10th from 7:00-10:00pm.

And if you sign-up and pay in full by Monday, August 26th you’ll get a $20 discount.
Stop by Lillstreet Art Center to register, call or click here to register online.

The new Summer class schedule is out and registration is now open.
Sign-up for a class and play in the clay this summer! 10-weeks of fun!

I will once again be teaching my Tuesday night class for multi-level beginners.
It’s the perfect class for brand new beginners, and repeat beginners who still want to refine their techniques… as well as people who may have played with clay years ago and really just want to get dirty again! The class syllabus is customized to fit the mix of students each session. Of course we cover all of the basics, but we also push a little further to cover topics that the returning beginners are ready to tackle!

Beginning & Advanced Beginning Wheelthrowing on Tuesdays from 7:00-10:00pm.
The ten-week class session runs from June 18th through August 20th.
And if you register before May 27th and save twenty bucks off your class!
You can register in person at Lillstreet Art Center or click here to register online.

And lookey here… on page 6 of the Lillstreet Summer Class Catalog,
there’s some beautiful stamped mugs drying on a studio shelf… if I do say so myself.

Tonight was a big night for my class when they learned how to make bowls on purpose instead of a cylinder gone bad… whoops, here’s a bowl! So we started the night with a demonstration of how to make a proper bowl. Then, as my students went back to try their hand at the wheel, I continued to throw more bowls. Once I had finished the bag of clay, I had twelve basic bowls – all kind of the same size & shape. All of them basically round. All of them basically plain.

Part Two of the class demo is to convince my students to “play with their clay” and get it to do something fun. I try to instill in them that the wheel is only a tool and it’s up to them to be creative and turn it into a “work of art.”  To make it their own! So my goal was to show them a few quick tricks to turn each one into something different. Nothing too tough, just some fun options for them to play with! All of  sudden, we had twelve different bowls… no longer the basic round bowls we started with!

Here’s a quick look at them one at a time…

Bowl #1 – The simple round bowl with four fluted accents.

Bowl #2 – The simple round bowl with the top edge flanged outwards. This one will probably get stamped tomorrow night… a few stamps never hurt anyone, right?!

Bowl #3 – A combination of #1 & #2… with the flanged edge and fluted accents combined. Odds are some stamps might hit this one too?!

Bowl #4 – The simple round bowl now with an even wider flange flattened out. That wide flange is screaming for some fun surface decoration, right?!

Bowl #5 – The simple round bowl with a split rim… done with the point of my wooden knife.
Kinda plain now… but this one will be stamped and fluted back together soon.

Bowl #6 – The same split rim technique, but this time pinched back together in places. The little pinch marks kind of bug me right now. For some reason they don’t look quite finished. So I’ll come up with something…

Bowl #7 – The simple round bowl with a small floral design made with a dragonscale tool pressed in a couple times into the freshly thrown bottom. Twelve impressions in case anyone’s counting?!

And then I introduced decorating with colored slip… or in my case, white slip…
Bowl #8 – I coated the interior and then dragged the round end of my wooden knife through it as the bowl was still rotating on the wheel. I especially love how the layer of slip creates some textures inside when dragged through it. The glaze should pool nicely in there somewhere…

Bowl #9 – Then we talked about what would happen if you goofed up halfway… so we stopped the spiral halfway up and finished with banded rings around the top.

Bowl #10 – With the addition of slip, I showed them a way to make Bowl #4 with a decorated flange. I coated it with white slip, and then dragged through it with the rounded end of my wooden knife.

Bowl #11 – After a layer of white slip, I used my curved rib to chatter through it. The challenging part is that it’s a steady combination of chattering speed, wheel rotation speed and upwards movement all at the same time!

Bowl #12 – For the last bowl, I cut out the number five from the newspaper. I stuck it on with water, carefully painted over it with white slip, and then coated the interior of the bowl. I then very carefully peeled out the newspaper 5 to reveal the design.

So now all of the bowls are safely up in my studio – wrapped up for the night. I hope to make it back to the studio tomorrow night to do some more stamping & detailing. And then when they’re ready, I’ll trim them up and send them off to the bisque. And in the meantime, I hope that my students are somehow inspired and ready to play a little more with their clay!

My favorite metalsmith Sarah Chapman is going to be back in town this Saturday!
Sure, she might have moved away to Minneapolis, but she’s still making great jewelry… and a new holiday ornament every month! This Saturday 4/13 is her Trunk Show in the Gallery of Lillstreet Art Center on the corner of Montrose & Ravenswood in Chicago. Stop by Saturday between 10:00am-12:00pm to see Sarah and her incredible textured, patina’d & constructed metal pieces! I guarantee you’re going to want your own piece of “Chapman Wear”… or add to your already growing growing collection!

Tonight was the last night of our 10-week pottery class. It went by so fast.
We celebrated with a lot of great potluck food… chicken, samosas, sushi,
guacamole, cheese, brownies, two kinds of homemade cream puffs, and way
too much more! Including ice cream sundaes with my homemade hot fudge…
and a special late “entry” from a former student of baked kale chips!!!
Just for the record… I prefer my hot fudge!!!

We also finished our class with a fun “Mug Exchange” where everyone brings
in a mug they made during class. We do a fun hidden-trading-white-elephant-
kind-of-game where everyone puts in a mug and leaves with someone else’s mug.
Nadine got my stamped green celadon mug, and I came home with
an amber celadon beauty by Dave Benjamin.

Tonight was the “Empty Bowls Project” at Lillstreet Art Center.
There were tables & tables filled with bowls. And a lot of people eager to
snatch them up, fill ’em with soup and donate to the cause. Thank you everyone!

It’s always fun to see people walking around with one of my bowls in their hands…
without them even knowing that it is one of MY bowls.

The Empty Bowls Project is a nationwide effort by potters to end hunger. Lillstreet Art Center
is proud to host this 6th annual event to benefit First Slice, a local hunger-fighting
organization. Just a quick FYI… First Slice is also a great place to get a snack, a sandwich
or a piece of pie… or two! And they’re conveniently located in the Lillstreet Gallery...
a little too convenient to my studio if you know what I mean!

Join the festivities and share a modest meal of soup and bread, served in a handmade bowl
donated by a ceramic artist that you may take home as a reminder of all the other bowls
you will have helped to fill. So not only to you get dinner – you get a bowl!!! And you feel
great doing a good deed at the same time!

Bowls are $25 each, and there is no limit to the number of bowls you may purchase.
Sales begin at 5:00pm on a first-come, first-served basis. FYI – several of the donated
bowls will be mine! There will also be a silent auction of artist-crafted items…
and I’ll have a donated piece in the Silent Auction as well. Anything for a good cause!

The Empty Bowls Project – at Lillstreet Art Center
4401 North Ravenswood (at Montrose), Chicago, Illinois 60640
Just a few steps east of the Montrose stop on the Brown Line.

And by the way… did I mention that the stack of bowls that have become the
“poster child” for Lillstreet’s Empty Bowls Project are actually mine as well?! Go figure…

I made the bowls several years ago when we were still at the old Lill Street location.
Emily Murphy and I went to a workshop with Australian soda-firing guru Gail Nichols
at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis. I was kind of “new” to the soda process and
still learning a lot. She showed off some of her bowls that she threw and fired on their sides.
I was intrigued enough that when I got back to the studio, I made my own version of the
inspirational “Gail Nichols Bowls.”  All bowls are similar, but each have a different soda
flashing effect. Some more subtle. Some more dramatic. Some blasted with soda.
And not a single stamp to bee seen anywhere… like I said, it was several years ago!

And if you stop by my place, or come to my Holiday Home Show,
you can see this full stack of bowls still on top of my kitchen cabinets!

I’ve often said I have some of the best students ever!
And it was “proven” once again! Today when I made it into my studio, there was a
very “sweet” surprise from one of my Tuesday students sitting there on my wedging table.
Thank you Catherine… let’s just call it “lunch.”

Tonight I “tackled” throwing plates with my beginning wheelthrowing class.
I always tell my students it’s easier to throw them than it is to trim them.
So I showed them that a platter is basically a low, wide cylinder with flared out
sides. A lot of compressing on the bottom… and some details & decorating.
We discussed dding slip when we made bowls. So why not add it to a platter?!

So I covered the interior of the plate surface with white slip. I then dragged the curved end
of my wooden knife through the slip. Bands here & there, squiggles in the middle. I really
like how the displaced slip also creates some great textures… and some great places for the
glaze to pool. The contrast between the clay body and the white slip ain’t bad either!