After wiping away the background… leaving the wax resist areas intact… Catherine had to get a little showy and added a layer of colored fun to her demo! Letting the wax resist do it’s thing, Catherine painted the bowl with blue underglaze… and the color doesn’t stick on the wax, except for maybe a little touch-up here & there! So now the “protected” pattern areas will be higher & clay colored… whereas the background is lower & blue!!!

When the wax resist pattern were dry, Catherine Tweedie then demonstrated how to wipe away the “unprotected” background areas with a damp sponge. As you wipe, the background dissolves away, whereas the “wax protected” parts stay where they were. The more you wipe away, the deeper the contrast between the two layers. Be careful not to wipe too hard… or you might wipe away some of the wax!

After Catherine did her demo for my SURFACE DECORATIONS class, my students picked up their paint brushes and gave it a go… painting patterns with wax resist on to the sides of bone dry bowls.

Knowing that I was going to be out-of-town for my SURFACE DECORATIONS class last week, I secured my pal Catherine Tweedie to sub for the class. She’s “the master” of water-etching…. so I knew she would be the perfect person to fill-in for me. She taught them the basics of the process… basically painting a pattern with wax resist or shellac, and then wiping away the “unprotected” background with a wet sponge. Here she is with two of her demo bowls painted with wax – just waiting for it to dry… before the wiping begins!

Tonight in my SURFACE DECORATION pottery class, we’re tackling a little sgraffito!!! I’ve got a couple surprises ready for them… and sharing my collection of DiamondCore Carving Tools for them to play with!!!

Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE trimming?! Especially when you get such clean cuts, lines & smooth edges with my DiamondCore Tools!!! Spinning fast, ribbons of clay coming right off the pots… making cool spirals & piles of trimmings!

Once my slip & plate were on the drier-side of leatherhard, it was ready for my class demo last Thursday night. I had already trimmed the bottom of the piece… but now I needed to shave off the top layer of white slip.

The “plan” for sanggam is to shave off the top layer of slip and leave it filled in the stamped impressions! Like I said… this is my first time really trying this technique. And what better place to do it than in class as demo for all of my Thursday night students?!

Turns out that my T2 Arc Trimming Tool from DiamondCore Tools was the perfect too for shaving off the white slip! It’s nice & sharp, and the curved edge seemed to fit in all the right placed without shaving off any gouges or lines!

And now that I have all of the pattern revealed, I’m planning on smoothing it out a bit with some sandpaper after to dries completely… with my mask on of course!!!

After stamping the pattern into my platter, I filled all of the stamps & covered it all with a thick white slip.

It took a little while to get it all filled in… as the thick slip wasn’t filling the indentations easily. So I had to “press it in” with the paintbrush – kinda tapping & squishing it in before smoothing it out.

Once the stamps were filled in… I smoothed it out, and added a second layer of slip to ty and cover the pattern completely.

Last night I had the pleasure of doing a little ZOOM studio tour & demonstration for the Glenview Art League. They all “stopped by” for some chatting & banter…. then a few demos of throwing on the wheel, followed by some stamping & surface decoration… and more discussion. Hopefully they all had fun… I know I did. After all, it was all about ME!!!… ha!

Such weird times when we’re still showing our studios, artwork & process through a small, non-tactile computer screen. I so look forward to getting back to in-person face-to-face fun! Keep getting those vaccines so we can get some herd immunity and get back to more normal days!

Last night in my Beginner’s wheel class, we glazed for the first half of the class. Followed by a quick not-so-basic-bowls demo! Not enough time for the full-blown bowl demo we’re used to… but we did tackle how to throw “a bowl on purpose” instead of a cylinder gone bad. Followed by some quick decorative techniques to make each one a little more special!