Just a little early morning wheelthrowing before heading north.
It was a very productive morning!

Cranking out a few more bowls before teaching class tonight. Gotta cover them with plastic so I can do more to them tomorrow. I have some big plans for these ones!!!

Last night in my Beginning & Advanced Beginning Wheelthrowing class we tackled the right way to make BOWLS. And yes, I stressed throwing “bowls on purpose, and not cylinders gone bad!” So I did a quick demo for them… answering questions & showing them how to get a nice smooth curve inside their bowls, with no beginners ledges or indents!

And yes… I explained & demo’d my LOVE for a good spiral !!!

And then after the first bowl… I sent them back to their wheels so they could start practicing. Meanwhile, I continued to throw MORE bowls… a full bag of clay’s worth… while still helping & answering questions along the way!

After I had thrown all of my demo bowls… we were back to helping students make their own bowls. BOWLS. BOWLS . BOWLS!!! Towards the end of the class, I had my students regroup a my demo wheel so we could do some alterations & decorations to the bowls… making each one of them special & unique with some simple tricks & techniques. Turning each one into a “not-so-basic bowl.”

Bowl #1 – The Plain One. The first bowl… the standard for all of the other bowls to follow!

Bowl #2 – Two Little Flutes… one finger inside, one finger outside, pinch & twist.

Bowl #3 – And if two are cute… eight simple flutes might be cuter?!

Bowl #4 – A Flared out Flange… bent out over a finger on the outside of the bowl.

Bowl #5 – If a little flared flange is cute, maybe a bigger flared flange is even better?

Bowl #6 – Combined a flared flange with four twisted flutes.

Bowl #7 – A split rim… then pinched together in eight places.

Bowl #8 – A split rim indented on two sides with the side of my wooden knife… this one might just become a “basket” with a fun strappy handle up & over the top!

Bowl #9 – Another split rim… indented in four places. No one said a bowl needs to stay round!!!

Bowl #10 – Another split rim… four indented sides… and four “out-dented” sides?! Kind of a lotus-y quatrefoil effect.

After ten bowls, it was time to add a little thick slip into the demo. So we talked about how cool slip is… and that the colored clay can be used for some many applications. That it becomes “part of” your bowl… and it will not melt & run like glaze does. But I like to work with “thick” slip so I can benefit from the thickness & textures it can create.

Bowl #11 – A great spiral. A thick layer of white slip with the end of my wood knife dragged through while the wheel was spinning.

Bowl #12 – Thick slip with some fingerpainting… an index finger squiggled through while spinning on the wheel!

Bowl #13 – Thick slip with dragged-through lines using a rubber rib.

Bowl #14 – Again with my green rubber rib, and some chattering through thick white slip!

Bowl #15 – Ombre’ blend of black & white slips.

Bowl #16 – Another ombre’ blend… and then a spiral dragged through with my wooden knife.

Bowl #17 – Another ombre’ blend also spiraled through, but this time with my finger!

The goal of this demo is multi-faceted. First, I want my students to make nice, well-thrown bowls. Second, I want them to have an arsenal of tricks & techniques to use whenever they want to. Have fun woth your clay, make cool stuff… and if it doesn’t work out, do it again! IT’S JUST CLAY!!!

And for now they’re all up in my studio safely under plastic. Because there’s “a very good chance that there might just be some more detailing” to follow… stay tuned.

Early morning production… just trying to crank out one last batch of mugs before my next soda kiln!!!

After finishing up some class demo pieces & posting a bunch of THROWDOWN pictures today… it was time to get back at it in the studio with a new batch of mugs now in the works!!!

Last week in my GREAT LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class, I challenged my students to a little “throwing off-the-hump” competition… and I mean LITTLE!!! They were tasked with throwing as many matching mini cups as possible off-the-hump… and “they chose” to go with this mini red Solo “shot glass” cup as their prototype cup to match!!! Several of them had never really done any throwing off-the-hump… so it was great fun & a great experience for many of them! And they all did a GREAT job!!!

While all of my focus has been on getting ready for “4×4 : FOUR MAKERS” this weekend… I couldnt stop making mugs! Especially when I realized that St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner. And you know what that means… SHAMROCK MUGS !!!

Seemed to be the theme for this week’s GREAT LILLSTREET THROWDOWN challenge… and there was plenty of laughing all night! They started at the wheel with a directive to “throw their own most perfect shape” in just 15 minutes. I think some people panicked & rushed too fast at the beginning, while others had extra soft clay that didn’t work in their favor. So many of their “most perfect” pieces were not-so-perfect. But who cares?… it’s just clay!

Also because the “real challenge” was for everyone who followed to re-create that exact “perfect” prototype as they had to move one wheel to the right and recreate the piece in front of them. Again… and again… and again. Realizing how hard it is to throw with intention… but even worse, to have to copy someone else’s intention… or in this case… “flop-tention”?? The winners were those people who “copied” the prototypes the best. “NAILED IT.”

This week in class with my Beginning & Advanced Beginning Wheelthrowing students we tackled making bowls on purpose, and NOT cylinders gone bad! I started the demo by throwing one bowl for them… explaining the process & what to watch out for. How to start out with a nice rounded bottom right from the start. How to avoid getting a “beginner’s ledge” about an inch up from the bottom. How to use a rubber rib to refine the interior curve of the bowl. How to focus on throwing the interior of the bowl to be the shape they want… knowing that they will trim the exterior to match later.

So here’s the first “prototype” bowl…
Bowl #1 – plain, round, simple rim… and my favorite spiral in the bottom!

And then I set them off to go back to their wheel so they can start practicing.

While they’re throwing, I continue to throw some more bowls while my assistant Susan and I help them along the way. Once I had a bunch of bowls done, we reconvened for Part Two of the night’s demo.

So we gathered, and the goal for Part Two is to show them some quick tricks & techniques to alter the looks of each bowl. Some simple things to make the bowls more “their own creation”… instead of the just round shape that they wheel kinda did for them!

Bowl #2 – two simple “flicked” & fluted twists on opposite sides.

Bowl #3 – And if two flutes looks good, maybe eight fluted edges would look better?

Bowl #4 – A simple flanged edge… folded out over my exterior finger to create this “ledge” area.

Bowl #5 – A much larger flanged edge… kinda like the fancy restaurants that put on tiny little scoop of food in the bottom of a large-flanged bowl and charge BIG bucks for it!!!

Bowl #6 – Combined flange and fluted flares!

Bowl #7 – A split rim pinched back together in eight places.

Bowl #8 – A simple split rim, then we dented in on two sides using the side of my wooden knife. We kinda liked it like this… and there’s a good chance that a handle might go up & over the top from dent-to-dent to make the bowl a bit of a basket.

Bowl #9 – Another split rim with four dents… kinda squaring-up the bowl.

Bowl #10 – The same dented-in bowl as #9 with the split rim, just four more flutes going outwards in the four corners… giving it kind of a lotus look.

After the first set of “altered rims”… we switched to colored slip as a decorative option.

Bowl #11 – After a layer of mazarine blue slip, the dragged the rounded end of my wood knife through the slip while the bowl was rotating on the wheel… revealing the clay-colored spiral through the slip!

Bowl #12 – After a layer of thick white slip, I just wiggled & squiggled my index finger through the slip for this wavy effect.

Bowl #13 – After a layer of thick white slip, I dragged the edge of a rubber rib upwards to create the effect.

Bowl #14 – Another spiral through thick white slip… with tighter spirals to create more of a “ledge” of slip spiral.

Bowl #15 – Chattering through thick white slip… using the edge of my rubber rib with rhythmic tapping up & down, then outwards while the wheel is spinning!

Bowl #16 – A simple ombre’ blend of white slip & mazarine slip… simple & clean…. although there’s a good chance I will do some sgraffito carving through this when it’s a bit drier!

Bowl #17 – Another ombre’ blend of white & mazarine blue, but then dragging a rounded tool end through the slip to create this spiral.

By the end of the class we had a table full of altered & decorated bowls. These went up to my studio to be wrapped under plastic for the night… as there might just be some more stamping, detailing & trimming later as they get to leatherhard.

LILLSTREET THROWDOWN : Challenge #11…
They say that “throwing with porcelain is like throwing with cream cheese.”
So they did!!!

We had a four-way THROWDOWN with each player throwing a package of cream cheese. Some struggled with the throwing, some with the goopey texture & some with the smell of the cream cheese! All in all, a great way to finish off our THROWDOWN evening of contests from “The Wheel Of Challenges”!!! Fun for all… and great entertainment for ME!!!