After driving back into the City from Midway Airport, I had to swing past
the studio to unload my latest bisque kiln. And everything looked good.
Not a single “explosion” from my “still-too-damp-to-fire-but-going-in-anyway”
textured slab vases! I knew that they had to fire while I was away in Delaware
if there was to be any chance of getting them into Friday’s kiln loading!

With my next soda kiln just a week away, I made one last batch of textured slab vases.
They’re perfect pieces to fit on the top shelf… hopefully fitting in perfectly along the
curve of the roof. Unfortunately, I only finished these yesterday, so they’re not quite dry!
But, I need to get them into my next bisque kiln if they’re going to make it into my
soda kiln next weekend. What to do?… well, I’m going to put them in, do a little
pre-heat, fire slowly and hope for the best!

Ovals done & drying. Only a few days left to make things for my upcoming soda kiln.
I need to check my calendar & work backwards from my loading date
to determine what else I can still make, trim, dry, bisque & glaze in time!

After finishing the slab vases with some colored slip accents,
it was time to make another “batch” of something. I was feeling a little less than inspired,
so I decided to make one of my favorites. No, not mugs… but ovals.

This time they’re slightly smaller – not so much a casserole, but more of a bud vase or
tchotchke keeper! I was pretty pleased with today’s “production” mode. Throwing them all,
stamping them all and ovaling them all in one afternoon! Okay, so I “pushed it” a bit.
The ovals were a little wetter than I would like them to be… in fact, I had one casualty while
stamping when the clay was to wet, stuck to the stamp & wouldn’t release! It ripped instead!

They’re wrapped up overnight and tomorrow I’ll add the bottoms, as well as some
colored slip accents! Finish these off… and then it’s another batch of… something?!

With my next soda kiln less than two weeks away, it’s time to start making some of the taller
pieces that will go on the top shelves… and follow the curve of the roof quite nicely. These
large slab vases are a lot of fun to make with different textures on each side of each vase.

Now that they’re all stamped and ready to start drying, I just need to add some colored
slip details on them. Good thing Flat Stanley stopped by to help!

Yep, my first grade niece Taylor read one of the “Flat Stanley” books and is now watching
Stanley travel around. I received Flat Stanley in the mail yesterday and have about a week
to capture his travels and exploits around the city. I thought it only fitting that Flat Stanley’s
first stop would have to be the studio where Taylor loves to play in the mud!
Apparently Flat Stanley like to play in the mud too!

So tonight while I was in the studio, I checked the bowls we threw last night
during my Beginning Wheel class demo. They were protected under plastic
and drying slowly. Luckily, with a little patience, they were ready to stamp a
few details into a couple of them. If you want to compare them to the original,
check the blog post from yesterday… you’ll the difference a little stamping can do!!!

Bowl #2 – Flanged… and now stamped!

Bowl #3 – Flanged, Fluted & Flopped… and now stamped!

Bowl #4 – Wide Flange… and now stamped!

Bowl #6 – Divided, Pinched, Squared… and now stamped!
Once this one gets trimmed, I’m also planning on adding some little “balls” on top
of the four pinch points. I’m not really a fan of the “pinch marks.” So I think they’ll
need some “creative camouflage.”

Tonight was the night that we tackled throwing bowls on the wheel.
Making bowls on purpose, not a cylinder gone bad.

So the way it goes, I start by teaching them all how to throw the bowl.
I introduce them to the beauty of throwing on bats, and using a plastic rib to create
the smooth curve inside. And then once we’ve thrown the first demo bowl, I then
let them go back and try making their own bowls. And while they’re throwing,
I continue throwing bowls. Tonight I was throwing 2-pound bowls with a very simple,
smooth round profile. Nothing fancy. And then once I had thrown my eleven bowls,
we reconvened for ‘demo part two.’ At this point, it’s my goal to show my students
some quick tricks to make each of the “fairly identical” bowls different from the next.

Plus, it’s a great time to introduce them to slip as a decorating option. All in all,
I think the demo went well. I think most of them were intrigued by the simple techniques
and the “ah-ha” results. And I’m always trying to get them past the “each pot is too
precious to mess with” mentality. I’m always trying to get them to push things further,
and realize that it is “just clay.”

Now I have eleven bowls in my studio… waiting for some stamping, finishing & trimming!

But just in case you missed the demo… here’s a quick recap of tonight’s eleven bowls.
Remember, they all started out pretty much the same.

Bowl #1 -Fluted
A simple finger flick, with one finger inside and another outside side-by-side.

Bowl #2 -Flanged
Adding a simple flange by flaring the top inch of the bowl out over the outside finger.

Bowl #3 -Flanged, Fluted… and Flopped?!
Yes, this was supposed to be a fluted flange. But it was a little wonky when I finished it.
When I was setting it up on the shelf, you could see it was no longer level. So I set it down
“hard’ on purpose… letting the bang force the flange to drop down into a “skirt” of sorts.

Bowl #4 -Wide Flange & Spiral Center
A much wider flange (soon to be stamped) and a nice spiral in the center.

Bowl #5 -Divided & Pinched
I used the pointed tip of my wood knife to divide the rim of the bowl,
and then pinched it back together in eight places.

Bowl #6 -Divided, Pinched & Squared
Same trick of dividing the rim, but then I think I shocked them a bit when I took
the nice round bowl and pushed it in to square i toff a bit.

Bowl #7 -Impressed Flower
With a simple, metal dragon-scaling tool that I bought for like two dollars, I press
it in twelve times in a certain pattern to create a fun flower in the bottom of the bowl.

Bowl #8 -Solid Slip
A simple coating of thick white slip… allowing the thickness to create a subtle spiral.

Bowl #9 – Spiral Slip
So I coated the interior of the bowl with thick white slip, and then dragged the rounded
end of my wood knife through the slip to reveal the clay color for contrast.

Bowl #10 – Chattered Slip
First, I gave the bowl a solid coat of slip on the interior… and then took my
rubber rib and “tapped” it rhythmically against the bowl while it was rotating.
The tapping frequency and wheel speed combine to make the pattern.

Bowl #11 -Slip Resist Lettering
Kind of the antithesis of a stencil… instead, I took letters cut out of the newspaper,
wet them, and then pressed them gently to the bowl interior. After you smooth the edges,
add a simple layer of covers the newspaper, followed by a complete layer covering the
interior. Once it’s all smoothed out & coated, carefully peel out the newspaper letter.

So now I have more bowls to finish tomorrow… some stamping, some embellishments,
and a lot of trimming to finish them all off.

Plus, it was great to have a Facebook fan & blog follower stop by class tonight!
Corbett stopped by from South Carolina to visit, say hello, chat a bit, see my studio
and then play in the clay! Thanks for stopping by Corbett… I hope you had fun!!!

When you throw 24 mug cylinders at a time…
and stamp 24 mugs… and trim 24 mugs…
at some point you need to pull & attach 24 handles! Well, today was that day!!!

Once all of the handles were attached, I then set out to do a little slip decorating.
Then they were done and ready to start drying.

Tonight I stamped…and stamped… and stamped some more!
With twenty-four mug cylinders to stamp,  I started stamping and thought you might
like to see some them… side by side! Along with the stamp that did all the hard work!!!

Next up?… trimming, handles and some colored flashing slips.
Looks like tomorrow might need to be another productive day?!!!

I’ve got just over three weeks to build a full soda kiln’s worth of pots!
My next soda kiln is scheduled for Saturday, May 5th… loading on the 4th.
So it’s time to kick it into high-gear again. Again tonight, it seems like I tend to
start with the smaller pieces and work my way bigger for some reason?!