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.

And here’s the vase I threw last night as part of my marbled clay class demo… now trimmed & skinned to reveal the marbling better. Enamored by the three color combo, the layers & ripples. We decided in class that maybe this one should be soda-fired with no glaze on the outside just to see how the soda effects alter or enhance the marbled surface! That’s the plan!

As part of me “demo-on-demand” teaching philosophy… we also tackled a quick demo in stamp making tonight in class. I’ll try to get them bisqued quickly so my students can start using them next week in class!

After doing my “simple” demo version of marbled clay… one of my students Kelly decided to tackle it with a bit more precision. Cutting, layering, sticking together & making her own version of a Rubik’s Cube!!! I can’t wait to see what she makes with this amazing colored cube next week in class!

Tonight in my Intermediate Wheelthrowing class, we played with some marbled colored clays. We used a light B-clay, a brown clay, and a special “celadon” green clay I made by wedging some Mason stain into it earlier in the week.

A bit of layering, just a little bit of wedging and I got some nice marbled effects in my two demo pieces. When they dry to leather-hard, I’ll trim them and “shave off” the outer skin to reveal even more of the marbled effect.

Not a bad ware board of “demo pots” from this morning’s wheelthrowing class. We tackled lidded jars – both traditional & my favorite “trick” jar. The lids we threw off-the-hump… and I had some clay left over on the hump… so we did some impromptu ornaments too!

It’s always gratifying as a teacher to see your students soaking up everything you’re showing them, embracing the project and then doing the demo themselves in class. So it was fun to see Darcy “loving” every part of the stamping demo… soaking up every little trick… and then working her magic on her own platters that she threw last week in class.

But here’s a question…
Is there such a thing as teaching them TOO WELL and now their work looks like mine?… or perhaps I just found my first studio apprentice??? HA!!!

Well done Darcy – your platters look GREAT!!!

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!!!

Ready for tonight’s class demo…

Okay, so I’ve been trying my best to follow the new “standardized & mandated” syllabus for all Beginning & Advanced Beginning Classes at Lillstreet. So we did the demo for throwing a taller cylinder as listed.

And then we were also supposed to introduce colored slip as a decorative technique.
Maybe the assumption was that we would slip paint the demo cylinder???…
but I think it makes a lot more sense to demo some fun, quick tricks inside bowls.
But with bowls now being the Week One demo… I guess my big “Bowls On Purpose” and multiple rims & decorative techniques demo doesn’t quite fit the new syllabus???!

So I scaled it back a bit… only eight bowls with some slip techniques as “mandated”…
and a couple rim techniques as requested by my students! Which is a shame, because I’ve always thought that demo was one of my best ever… and my students were always WOW’ed by it!!! Hope they liked the shorter, smaller, scaled back version too?!

Bowl A – A simple flared flange rim.. with a thin layer of white slip.

And then there were a couple requests from students who have seen “the full” bowl demo before… and they asked if I could do the split rim bowls again.

And who am I to say “NO”?… even if it’s NOT on the “standardized syllabus?

Bowl B – Ashley’s requested split rim bowl with some quick pinches back together!

Bowl C – Another split rim fluted in and flared out…
kind of a lotus “squared off” bowl as requested by Michelle.

So then I got back on track… and back to the slip demo as “prescribed” by the syllabus..

Bowl D – I was going to paint on a full layer of white slip on the interior… but once I put that one first paintbrush swoosh…. we all kinda liked it and decided we should leave it there! So NOT my normal style, but they all voted to keep it this way! Especially because of that one “perfect” round drop!

Bowl E – This time I did fill the interior with thick white slip,a nd then dragged the rounded end of my wooden knife through the slip as the wheel was spinning… ‘cuz everyone loves a good spiral.

Bowl F – Another bowl covered with a layer of thick white slip…
and then squiggled & wiggled through with my fingertip!

Bowl G – After a layer of thick white slip again, I used a rounded rubber rib for some rhythmic chattering trough as the bowl was spinning.

Bowl H – Another student request… “Can you mix or blend two colors?”… so we did!
A nice ombre blend of white to black… and then a squiggle spiral through it.

After class I brought them all up to my studio and put them under plastic. I want to keep them soft… because there may just be a little stamping & detailing to be done to them still before trimming. Maybe?… Hypothetically?…