Last night in class, I did a couple demos of plates & platters. One of the plates was kinda plain… so I decided to add some thick white slip & chatter through it with a rubber rib.

My final class demo for my SURFACE DECORATION class last Thursday was a fun & colorful floral pattern. I used black, red & green slip… and let it dry to a stiffer leatherheard surface. And then started carving through the layers with my DiamondCore Tools. It was a fun platter to work on… my first time doing a multi-colored sgraffito piece. I’m pretty pleased with this new direction… although I feel it still needs some more detailing & clean-up. I might just need to make more of these…

After the sgraffito bowl, I went for a more geometric treatment of a larger dinner plate… carving through the band of black slip to reveal a pattern of the lighter clay body. Just trying to show my students that there are different styles… and that not all sgraffito needs to be so illustrative. Again, carving clean lines & smooth curves with my DiamondCore Tools.

So proud of Taylor… who definitely paid attention to my class demo & listened to my mantra “More Is More” again. Look at this amazing plate that she decorated with my stamps during class this week. I’ve already warned her… it’s a slippery slope. But have a GREAT time stamping!!! With great results like this… we want to see MORE!!!

Meanwhile, back at my Easter dinner… I made two flavors of Gooey Butter Cake. A yummy version of the St. Louis classic… in honor of my niece Taylor who is now going to school in Missouri and had her first Gooey Butter Cake “experience” recently. And now we’re all fans!!!

Looks like there was a bit of Easter yumminess down Peoria this past weekend… a festive carrot cake with plenty of cream cheese frosting & glittery sprinkles!!! Oh yeah, and a pretty green stamped plate makes any cake even more special. Thanks for sharing your pics with me!

Some Easter fun yesterday with my niece Taylor who took on my “challenge“ to make her standard crescent rolls into Easter Bunnies!!! NAILED IT… but in a good way!!! Ha!

While we’re in-between sessions at Lillstreet, it still seems like the perfect chance to show-off one of my Intemediate students and her handiwork! While sharing my MKM Pottery Tools with my class, Jen decided to make a “quick” handbuilt platter using a couple of my MKM hand rollers. Jen is normally a “wheelthrower”… so she assumed this would be a “quick” project to crank out. But quickly found out that handbuilding takes time & patience as well… with a lot of attachments & things to clean-up. But look at this textured plate… it’s AMAZING Jen!!!

As seen on the Lillstreet Show-Off Shelves! You may remember these plates from the LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class when they were tasked with slip-trialing a set of two dinner plates. These fun dandelion seed pod plates turned out great… as the last time we saw them they were plain bisque. Shannon did a GREAT job glazing these… especially with the labor-intensive task of using wax resist on every seed before dipping in the celadon glaze! Congrats Shannon… it was worth the extra effort!!!

You know how much I LOVE a good National Holiday! Especially when it’s one of my favorites. Today is NATIONAL OREO DAY! Too hard to choose one… so I had to “celebrate “ with three flavors!!! Aww, shucks!