Last week in my Advanced Wheelthrowing class, they decided that we should tackle Christmas Trees!!!… a little fun with Christmas in July!!! So we threw the trees on the wheel and then tried a few different surface decoration ideas on them… including a few with some thick white slip, and one with rhythmic chattering through white-over-green slip!

It was fun trying different techniques…
including these last four made by Darcy in class!

Here’s a quick peek at Helen’s first attempt at the “sanggam” technique during our SURFACE DECORATION class last session. You basically do some stamping into the clay, then cover the entire piece with a contrasting colored slip. When that layer of slip dries up, you then scrape it all off to reveal the original surface of the piece, and the contrasting colored slip stays inlaid in the stamps… hopefully creating a smooth surface with an inlaid design. Nicely done Helen!!!

As part of tonight’s Stamping Demo on ZOOM, I demonstrated on four different bowls adding a bit of texture & pattern to each of them. Here are the four demo bowls… followed by a few details shots, as well as pictures of the stamps that worked their magic!

Bowl #1 –

Bowl #2 –

Bowl #3 –

Bowl #4 –

As part of my SURFACE DECORATION end-of-class trading game, tonight I put one of these green plates into the game… still in the category of “something stamped.” And as luck would have it, Christine went home with a green stamped plate… and I went home with her stamped mug!!! Go figure!

Last night during my SURFACE DECORATION class, we tackled carving through wheelthrown bowls to make “baskets”… with the goal of carving at least HALF of the bowl’s weight away! Tougher than it sounds. You kinda need a good plan from the start or you’ll lose some structural integrity. And then when it becomes delicate towards the end… you need to remember to NOT over-work or over-wet it… or it might just come tumbling down!

And then when it becomes delicate towards the end… you need to remember to NOT over-work or over-wet it… or it might just come tumbling down!

You’re the “Master of Water-Etching”… and I’m sure my students loved your demo! You went above & beyond with that splash of color… but I knew you would. Thanks for being the best sub teacher ever for my SURFACE DECORATIONS class last Thursday!

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!