After this week’s “bowls om purpose, not a cylinder gone bad” demo… I was left with fifteen bowls to finish up. Sure, I “coulda” left them the way they were. But, you know I co e from the school of MORE IS MORE!!! So here’s a few shots of what I’ve done with them since class!

So for now they’re all stamped & detailed… just waiting to be trimmed!

Last week in my SURFACE DECORATION class, we celebrated the end of the session with another “trading game”… and I came home with this wonderful plate from Christine. The rim of the plate is textured slip “squiggles” with a variety of stains & glazes at work to make this fantastic result!

When passing the shelves of student’s glazed works last night, I was taken by this beautiful plate! Striking details accentuated with a wonderful ombre blend of sprayed glazes. So fun to see that it was made by one of my former students who seems to have succumb to the “more is more” mantra… and is killin’ it!!! This plate is beautiful Kimberly… so pretty that I moved it up to “The Show-Off Shelves”!!! Well done… and make MORE!!!

Last night in class, one of my Beginner’s has started doing these wonderful carvings into her pots… and wondering how to best glaze them to show-off the textures & patterns. We decided to paint black underglaze into the design, gently wipe off the top layer leaving it only in the grooves… then spraying a thin translucent glaze over the entire pot. Can’t wait to see how Kristen’s carved masterpieces turn out!!! She’s so excited…. and well, she should be!!!

Fresh from the garden… not mine of course, but of wonderful friends who love to grow things! And share things… like this beautiful bowl of colors & textures! Oh, how I love rhubarb season!!!

Last week in my SURFACE DECORATIONS class, I showed my students how to use sprigs to decorate their bowls. Basically, a sprig is the “opposite” of a stamp… where you press clay into these handmade “molds”… pop them out… and then score & slip them onto the bowls. So sprigs “stick out”… whereas my usual stamping in more “pressed in.” Kinda fun… we’ll see how this looks after some glaze plays with the new textured surface!

A yummy breakfast looks even yummier on handmade pottery! Looks like Rosene’s day is off to a great start… crispy, creamy & cheesy. What’s not to like?!

Start your “tour” at the Sandwich stop for the NORTHERN ILLINOIS POTTERY TOUR… just one month away!!! We’ll have plenty of pottery & fun for everyone… including a wide range of textures & patterns!!! Which we’re celebrating today for another TEXTURE TUESDAY!!!

Saturday, June 11th & Sunday, June 12th

This week in my SURFACE DECORATIONS class, we tackled a couple different techniques for a fun tie-dyed effect… you all know I’m a kinda big fan of tie-dye!!!

So we started with a “squiggly” version… where I took a large plat platter, painted a layer of thick slip on top, and then dribbled some blobs of colored underglazes on top of it. Not really sure how this will work… but I’m always ready to try something new… it’s just clay, right?!

And then I took a plastic rib with a scalloped edge… a cake decorating tool… and started to squiggle through the layers of slip & underglazes to blend, blur & texture the plate. In hindsight, I kinda wish the plastic rib were either softer or thinner… as it was a bit tough to get some good squiggle up by the curve of the rim.

So here it is so far… I’m going to let it dry slowly and trim the bottom when it gets leatherhard. Still contemplating if it might “need” a bit of stamped texture somewhere?! And if so… where???

After bisque firing, I’m assumiong I’ll probably just sue some clear glaze to make the colors “pop” and give it all some shine. The downside might be… that I’m not fully confident that the colors of the underglazes will actually “survive” the high-fire cone 10 temperatures. But we’ll find out soon enough…

Not quite traditional “tie-dye”…. but pretty fun & groovy nonetheless!

This week in my SURFACE DECORATIONS class, we did a bit of carving for texture & pattern! I started with two bowls with slightly thicker walls, trimmed at leatherhard, and then we sat down to carve. Using my sharp DiamondCore Tools gives me nice crisp lines, grooves & incisions… and I’m always willing to let my students give them a try too… a mix of carving tools & trimming tools for an assortment of lines!!!