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

After fulfilling my BERNIE-quotient for the day…
It’s back to the studio for some trimming. Gotta take a little clay off the bottoms of these cylinders & add a nice footring so I can start turning them into mugs! Special thanks to DiamondCore Tools for making these really great trimming tools for smooth trimming, clean lines & groovy squiggles of clay as they come right off!

In my Advanced Wheel class on Thursday, I did a little sgraffito demo for them on the demo platter I had thrown the week before. It’s a little different as I’m used to white clay with a dark slip… whereas this one is a dark clay with a light slip. I used a colored flashing slip, so “the plan” is that this will go into a soda kiln at some point… just to see what happens. I’m not sure the carving is done yet… but this is as far as I got during the class demo with my DiamondCore Carving Tools. I’ll do a bit more carving & cleaning up before I let it start drying.

After playing in the fog yesterday, I figured I better hunker down and get some work done in the studio today! I mean, it’s still raining outside so I have no diversions, no excuses! So I’m starting with some trimming with my DiamondCore Tools & my fast-spinning Giffin Grip! A perfect studio combo!!!

Tackling the bottoms of some new stamped platters in the studio today. To trim a clean footring across such a wide expanse, it helps to have sharp trimming tools… like this favorite from DiamondCore Tools!

Sure, I could have left this bowl with the simple ombre colors gradating from blue to orange… but MORE IS MORE, right?! So I decided to do a little carving through the colored slip with my DiamondCore Tools instead!

Before teaching class this morning, I did a little more sgraffito carving on this large platter. I started the carving as part of last week’s class demo for my Intermediate class… but then kinda “forgot about it” under plastic in my studio. So now I’ve done a bit more carving & cleaning up with my DiamondCore Tools.

I think it looks a lot better than how I had left it after class?!

Tonight in class, Kelly had a plate that she wanted to decorate. She had hoped to do some stamping, but it was a bit too dry already. So she did some sgraffito carving instead. And to make her carving lines cleaner & sharper, I brought down my collection of DiamondCore Tools for her to try out. Always a good choice for crisp carving lines… and I’m always willing to share!!!

Spending some time tonight trimming again… and you know how much I love trimming. It gets me one step closer to adding handles on these mugs… even more “fun” with my DiamondCore Tools Trimming Tools.

Hanging out in the studio tonight watching The Emmy’s… happily trimming with my DiamondCore Tools… so smooth, so sharp, so crisp! Surprisingly, The Emmy’s aren’t too painful to watch without anyone there! Glad I have some more mug cylinders to trim though… a nice diversion when an acceptance speech drags on a bit!!!