In my Intermediate Wheelthrowing class today, I did a little sgraffito carving demo for them… using my favorite DiamondCore Tools! They learned how to throw platters in class two weeks ago… it only seemed right that we “finish” the demo platter with a little “demo” sgraffito!!!

This past Tuesday night in my wheelthrowing class, I shared my DiamondCore Tools with some of my students to try out. They loved the sharp-crisp carvings & trimmings that they made. And then Katie tackled a bowl she made with marbled clay of ochre & B-clay. As if the marbled swirl weren’t cool enough… Katie carved a repetitive pattern on the sides to reveal an even cooler pattern within the marble!!! Well done Katie… I love it… as you know, MORE IS MORE!!!

Doing a little carving with a DiamondCore Tool on one of the sides of my blocks… sgraffito decorating was one of the guidelines I put forth for this week’s LILLSTREET THROWDOWN challenge!

After last week’s POTTERY THROWDOWN class where they decorated tiles and a cylinder using that one tool… their “homework” was to throw another cylinder at least 9-inches tall… and then decorate that new one with that same one tool. Looking to see how the design transformed from the two-dimensional tile, to a smaller cylinder… and then even larger where there was even more “canvas” to decorate. This time, they had to use THAT ONE TOOL as their primary decorating tool, but they could also embellish with other surface decoration techniques as well.

Unfortunately… Teresa, Jon & Patti missed the class the week before…
so they didn’t have a tile or a cylinder to work from.
All they had was their homework assignment… and ONE TOOL.

Teresa

Jon

Patti

And now back to the original challenge… with tiles, cylinders and their new vases!

Susan

Jacob

Taylor

Tatiana

Claire

Dave

Molly

And now our TOP TWO WINNERS…

Ryan who carved out all of the areas with the dull metal part that was inside his tool.. and then applied each cut-out to the vase to make it even more dimensional.

Donna who started with a simple heart design on her nine tiles, then extrapolated one tile of the heart into the five dots and one hexagon for the cylinder… and then came back and combined them all back together for her heart-themed vase… still with the dots and hexagons!

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So after choosing their favorite tile, and getting their FREE BONUS CYLINDER…
let the surface decoration inspiration challenge begin! How to translate their first “tile” design onto a round cylinder form??? And here’s what they came up with…

Donna

Susan

Jacob

Molly

Claire

Dave

Tatiana

And then our TOP TWO winners!!!

Taylor

Ryan …who got huge kudos for tackling a carved project like this WITHOUT any sharp tools!!!

And then they thought they were done… happy to be done with that ONE TOOL.
But they weren’t. There was still one more trick up my sleeve!

So much fun to see one of my Tuesday Night pottery students “test driving” her new V-tip DiamondCore Tools for the very first time… first time with this tool AND first time carving all together!!! Looks like Jen is off to an AMAZING start… a little carving prodigy in the making!!!