Last night in my Intermediate Wheelthrowing class, we did a little “exchanging-trading-stealing” game… and the theme was FLOWER POTS with a plant inside! We all had a great time sharing our flowerpots & plants. And THEN… Christine pulled out another bag all wrapped up for ME!!! What?!… A late entry into the “sharing game” just for me?!

And it turned out to be this AMAZING cookie creation!!! Sure, she might just know a little somethin’-somethin’ about my OREO addiction?!

Christine is fairly new to the handbuilding… with this being only her SECOND handbuilding project ever. Never one to shy away from a good challenge, Christine took it upon herself to build this amazing flower pot! Even better – working at her new make-shift pottery studio workspace at home in her kitchen! Recently pulled together due to the pandemic restrictions and her ever-growing addiction to clay!

So here’s a little step-by-step process story for you… with special THANKS to Christine for sharing all of her process photos!

It looks like Christine started by enlarging the famous OREO pattern embossed on the cookies… and then cut them out to use them as templates & stencils for the project.

Using the patterns, Christine cut out the logo from a slab of clay. Funny thing… I was right there while Christine was rolling out her slabs on the Lillstreet slab roller.. and had no idea what she was working on! And then she continued to cut out all of the other parts & pieces. Good thing Christine has a nice “damp box” at home to store all of these pieces as she’s working on them.

Using the original stencils, Christine then transferred the pattern onto the large “cookie” circle disc of slab clay. This process makes it a LOT easier to places the pieces later.

After a LOT of scoring & slipping… the textured & embossed “cookie” was coming along nicely… still waiting for the decorative border of little rectangles. A lot of them!!!

So here are the two oversized “cookies” just waiting for the cream filling… the “container” portion of the flower pot!!!

The flower pot portion was created out of slabs as well… looks like this one might be TRIPLE STUFFED!!!

With a little chunk of sponge to support the cookie walls, the flower pot was assembled and allowed to stiffen up without sagging.

Christine then added some slabs to the bottom as “feet” for the flower pot to stand on… and NOT roll around like a cookie on its side!

While the flower pot was setting up, Christine made a small water trip tray to fit under the flowerpot.

When both pieces were finally dried, they were bisque-fired… bringing out the “traditional” terra cotta coloring we all love!

And then a couple coats of underglaze to give it that special OREO cookie color!!!

But then the triple-stuffed “filling” needed to be painted with white underglaze… using green tape to make nice clean lines between the colors.

All coming together… looking more & more like an OREO cookie!!!

And then a couple layers of glazed sprayed on to give it some shine.

And then it was ready to go back into the kiln for the glaze firing. Huge thanks to Dave Trost for being Christine’s “cohort-in-crime” – helping to facilitate this covert project. Apparently there was a lot of hiding & stashing of this piece so that I wouldn’t happen upon it ruining the surprise. A lot was going on around me… and I had NO IDEA!!!

After the glaze firing, it looked great. Christine apologized a bit for the coloring… bringing up that they have made Blueberry OREOS in the past!!! Sure, the traditional dark brown OREO might have been nice, but the blue hue makes it a bit more fun & magical.

Such a wonderful surprise by one of My Talented Students!!!
THANK YOU AGAIN CHRISTINE!!!

After a little more pinching, shaving, shaping & smoothing… I kind of felt like this batch of spoons was ready to call done. They’ll dry now and then need to be bisque fired before I send them through the soda kiln. I’m going to leave this batch “plain”… but already considering the next batch might need some stamping & colored flashing slip accents.

You know my motto… MORE IS MORE!

When the kiln finally got up towards its top temperatures tonight, my class started scooping the soda mixture onto an angle iron preparing to insert it into the kiln to create the soda atmosphere. They had a great time “playing” with the flames, inserting the soda & making some “magic” happen inside the kiln!!!

While I’m firing the soda kiln today, it’s a good chance to get some work done in the studio like glazing, cleaning & re-organizing! Glazing is always my least favorite part of the process… but it’s got to get done at some point. And since I’m “trapped” here all day firing, today might just be the day to tackle glazing these new berry bowls!

So I’ve wiped off the drips from the liner glazes & cleaned the rims of the mugs. Next I’ll add some wadding to the bottoms and they’ll be ready for loading into the soda kiln… my “Plan B” in case my Soda-Firing Workshop students don’t have enough work to fill the kiln tonight when we load in class later tonight. If these don’t make it in… there’s always my next soda kiln… one step ahead…

Getting ready for soda-firing, so I’m not glazing the exterior of the mugs. The soda kiln atmosphere will do most of the work by adding some shiny glaze surfaces, flashing marks & will also make the colored flashing slips pop in color! But I do glaze the interior of each mug… this time with a simple tenmoku glaze to “visually connect” with the color inside the stamps.

Wiped clean with the tenmoku glaze staying inside the stamped impressions. Next up… liner glazing…

After adding a layer of tenmoku glaze over & into the stamped textures, I gently wipe away the “top layer” to reveal the glaze inlaid in the impressions. It also really helps “pop” the dab of colored flashing slip in the middle of each stamp… details matter!

Getting ready for tonight’s SODA-FIRING WORKSHOP at Lillstreet. My students will be bringing their own bisque to glaze, wad & load tonight. I am glazing up some of my own work as “kiln filler” in case they don’t have enough work to fill the kiln. It’s always tough to estimate the amount of work going into the kiln load. Some of my workshop students have never soda-fired or even been to Lillstreet before… so it will be an interesting mix tonight, and I just want to have a back-up plan ready in case they don’t bring enough work!!!

So Ive been working on some more of my “handbuilt-wheeltrown-combo” mugs. The bottoms are wheelthrown, the sides handbuilt, and then trimmed & refined on the wheel again! One of my favorite “tricks” for making fun textured mugs!

I start by making some textured slabs of clay. Sometimes with my own stamps, texture mats, or carved rolling pins… like this great one from STODOLA!!! They make tons of different rolling pin textures… including custom designs if you need that. Check ’em out at www.stodola.org.

After pressing in a texture, I cut them into straight-sided rectangles… long enough to be the circumference around the base of the cup.

I throw little “bases” on the wheel… just a small little disc wheelthrown on a plastic bat. I do NOT wire them off as I will be putting them back on the wheel to continue to the process and I want them to stay centered.

I start assembling them by wrapping the slab around the base – scoring & slipping along the way. One of the benefits of this technique is that the weight of the slab is supported by resting on the plastic bat. The extra part below the wheelthrown bottom will be trimmed off later. But it makes a great support system at this point.

Where the slab overlaps, I cut it on an angle and then connect that seam… trying to blend it together as best I can without ruining the pattern. A good “secure” seam is pretty important here.

After attaching the sides, you can spin them on the wheel and press outwards from the inside to give the cup a little curve & volume. I also give the rim a little extra attention to keep it round & smooth… like a wheelthrown cup.

I let the cylinders set-up overnight before trimming… under plastic so they dry slowly to leatherhard. At this point, they can be wired off the plastic bat.

I start by cutting off the excess slab that is “under” where the slab attaches to the wheelthrown disc with a sharp blade. Confusing a bit… as it is now “above” the connection point as the cup has been flipped for trimming.

Then I start trimming the bottom as though it were a “normal” wheelthrown cup. The Giffin Grip helps hold everything in place and centers things quickly! And my DiamondCore Trimming Tools work great for trimming a clan, crisp footring. I make sure to trim all the way into the textured slab so that it blends together and looks seamless.

Once trimmed, I let them sit under plastic while I pull some handles for them. Cups are cups… but a mug needs a handle!!!

So when the handles stiffen-up a bit, I start attaching them to the sides… usually where the seam is as a little “creative camouflage.”

I let the mugs sit under plastic overnight again so that they stiffen-up to leatherhard and the moisture levels balance out. Since these are going to be soda-fired, I decided to dip them in thin colored flashing slips. I held them by the footring and carefully submerged them into the slip to only cover the textured slab sides. I left the curved wheelthrown bottoms as raw clay. I think that the difference will look cool after soda-firing! As the slip was dripping wet after dipping, I propped them up on kiln posts so the dripping would stop before flipping them back over. I didn’t want big drippy runs going down the sides.

So now they’re drying and getting ready for a bisque firing. Once fired, I will add a liner glaze and maybe some other colored glaze accents. After soda-firing, the textures should pop nicely and the flashing slips will help accentuate the pattern.

Finger crossed.