When the shellac patterns were dry, I started to wipe away the “background” clay with a damp sponge. The idea is to remove layers of the background so that the shellac patterns remain intact and “higher” than the rest of the bowl. Luckily I used B-Clay, as wiping away stoneware would reveal a rough & groggy surface.

So I wiped… and wiped… and learned a few things.
One, it’s hard to know when to stop.
Two, if you wipe too hard or too long, some of the shellac wipes away too… so my thick shellac lines started to get thinner in some sections. Of course, I struggled with that for awhile… but I think I’m okay with it now.

When this bowl gets bisque fired, the shellac will burn away and then I’ll finish it with a nice glaze to help accentuate the edges & difference in surface heights. Already planning the next water etching project… let the class demo “challenge” continue!!!

You know how I love a good challenge!

So when one of my students Heidi “challenged me”
to do some water etching instead of stamping… I said “Game On!”

So I threw a bowl, dried it to leatherhard, trimmed it and brought it back to class. I didn’t really have a design plan… so I went more with a “sampler” style bowl. So in class I painted my patterns on the bowl with shellac. I used a Q-Tip instead of a brush because I thought it would have a better edge instead of bristles moving around too much… plus, disposable! I let the shellac dry… and then it was time to start wiping away the background clay! More to come…

I’m always intrigued by how one little stamp
can change the whole look of a simple dinner plate!

Staying warm, staying inside… making more bowls in the studio. Can’t wait for these to stiffen up a bit so I can stamp them and move them along in the process… let the transformation begin… soon to be “something to behold”!!!

After stamping, I added a few accents of colored flashing slip onto the vases. These will change colors as they react with the atmosphere of the soda kiln… believe it or not, I’m painting with a slip that turns ORANGE!!!

Snowing outside… but stamping inside! Spent some time in the studio stamping these two vases that I made during my Monday night class demo for “throwing taller.” Sure, I coulda’ left them smooth… but what fun would THAT be?!!!

So excited to get some good glaze results back! I’ve been working on making a few more Cone 6 glazes for my studio. I’m still working on “refining” the recipes a bit… but I wanted to see what they might do when fired to a higher temperature. I’ve always thought it would be great to have a collection of glazes hat work well in Cone 6 oxidation, but ALSO work equally well at the higher Cone 10 reduction temperature!

I’m pretty excited by the look of these… most of them are showing some definite promise.

On each of the test tiles, they have a single dip of glaze over all… followed by a second dip of glaze only in the upper right corner on an angle. Thus the drippy run on the right side on some of them.

Here’s what my new LIME glaze looks like in Cone 6 oxidation firing… followed by the same glaze in a Cone 10 reduction firing on different clay bodies.

Here’s what my MALACHITE GREEN glaze looks like in Cone 6 oxidation firing… followed by the same glaze in a Cone 10 reduction firing on different clay bodies.

Here’s what my CELADON GREEN glaze looks like in Cone 6 oxidation firing… followed by the same glaze in a Cone 10 reduction firing on different clay bodies.

After trimming, I sat down and threw a bunch of small drip plates for the latest batch of berry bowls! So does anyone else find that they’re extra-productive when there’s a snowstorm approaching and want to get home before it hits?!

Trimming a couple large bowls today before the snow!
Smooth & crisp ribbons of clay just peel right off
with my DiamondCore Trimming Tools!

So here are some new berry bowls…
next up, some little drip plates to go under them!