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!!!

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!

So I just watched this week’s episode… The Quarter Finals of THE GREAT POTTERY THROW DOWN! Where we go from four potters to three. And then I realized that somehow I forget to post last week’s episode where we went from five to four! So here it is… with a fun outdoor pit firing, some sgraffito carving and another great wheelthrowing challenge!

Click here for the link to watch the episode on YouTube!

So much fun teaching today as I subbed for two of Catherine’s classes. The first one was “First Time Potters” who are just starting in their fourth clay class ever! So it was basic centering, cylinders, and bowls along with some ooh’s & ahh’s. The afternoon class was “Simply Soda” where I threw a platter, stamped it and then turned it into test tiles for the soda flashing slips the soda firing newbies want to test. So much fun… you know I’ll share any pottery “secret” and give away all of my tricks!!!

The other two-pots-thrown-as-one demo was a large chip & dip bowl.
So it’s now stamped and “drying” slowly in my studio… waiting to be trimmed.

This week’s class demos were about two-piece pots thrown as one. Like this large flower pot with an attached water tray. I threw the pot in class, but did the stamping later in my studio after it had stiffened up a bit.

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!!!

Okay… I’m kind of embarrassed to say this…
to admit that I actually watched this show and kind of liked it…
sure it was pretty darn schmarmy, too schmaltzy and over-produced…
but you know I love a good Flash Mob. So tonight I watch Howie Mandel’s
“Mobbed” on TV. Some schmuck proposed to his overly-controlling girlfriend
while people danced all around them… and then married her on the spot.
I know I should be embarrassed… but it was a Flash Mob!!!

But there is one good thing I can share from my night in the studio…
One of my favorite “tricks” I learned from potter & friend Emily Murphy while she was
still one of my studio neighbors at Lillstreet.  And that would be the ever-popular and
very necessary plastic-wrapped TV remote control. Yep, just take a clean clay bag and some
clear box sealing tape. Wrap it as cleanly & thinly as possible… and voila’…
your remote control won’t get all gunked up with clay! And then you too, can watch far too
much bad television while you work in your studio!!! Did I mention that also I watched
“American Idol” before “Mobbed”?… could it get any worse?