As seen on the Lillstreet Show-Off Shelves! You may remember these plates from the LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class when they were tasked with slip-trialing a set of two dinner plates. These fun dandelion seed pod plates turned out great… as the last time we saw them they were plain bisque. Shannon did a GREAT job glazing these… especially with the labor-intensive task of using wax resist on every seed before dipping in the celadon glaze! Congrats Shannon… it was worth the extra effort!!!

Huge congratulations to Taylor in my THROWDOWN class… as this is her very first plate AND her first time doing slip trailing!!! And look how great her very first plate turned out!!! Well done Taylor!

This week in our GREAT LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class, the “homework” challenge was to make their matching dinner plates from last week’s class more decorative with only SLIP TRAILING as their chosen surface decoration technique. They had the option of going all matchy-matchy… or a design theme that works well together for a tight cohesive set! As some of them had never really done slip trailing before, I think they totally knocked it out of the park!!!

For this week’s LILLSTREET THROWDOWN, my students brought in their homework from last week. Which was trimming & decorating with slip trailing on the four “matching” vases they threw during class last week. It was fun to see how each of them approached the challenge differently… many of them slip trailing for the very first time!!!

THESE DESIGNS ARE AMAZING!!!… and they’re cookies!!! Even better…
Can you just imaging what this artist could do with some liquid clay slip on some well-thrown pots??? Her slip-trailed pottery would be amazing!!!

According to the link on Colossal.com…
“Chef Judit Czinkné Poór is the mastermind behind Hungarian cake decorating shop Mézesmanna, a small studio with a giant social media presence because of the incredible photos and videos they share of their decorative confections. Nearly everything they produce falls into the ‘looks too good to eat’ category, from elaborate illustrations of animals, to intricate patterns inspired by embroidery. Seen here is a quick video of her ‘royal icing’ technique.”

Click here to see the amazing video of Chef Judit decorating a cookie!

UPDATE :
And then shortly after posting this originally,
I got an e-mail from a follower who just felt he had to share… and I’m glad he did!!

From Tim…
“I saw the same post you shared from Colossal on the cookie decorating people (who are fantastic) and decided to Google their work.  Found this gem and figured you would enjoy it!  Have a good weekend!”

Another talented potter making fun pots. The Evanston Lakeshore Arts Festival was Lesley’s first “big” art fair… and I knew she would be a hit!!! So I made sure to snag a great mug early Saturday morning before she sold out.

Lesley has been doing a lot of slip trailing decoration on her work lately. The intricate designs remind me of some traditional henna tattoo patterns. She then rubs some glaze onto the bisqued slip trailing, and wipes it off to give it that “ghostly” haze that pops the decoration right off the pot. Beautiful. And besides these, she was also showing off her whimsical side with fish, owls and other musical pieces!!!

To see more of Lesley Bevan’s work, or to purchase a “treasure” of your own,
click here to check her out on Etsy.

So last Friday night was Empty Bowls at Lillstreet Art Center.
I was too “busy” focusing on my income taxes to attend the event, but twelve of my bowls were there! From what I’ve heard, they sold over 650 bowls and raised over $9,000 for local food-related charities.

Apparently, one of my students brought her Mom & Dad to the event. They looked around, each picked out a bowl… and low & behold, Shea’s Mom picked one of mine!!! Out of a sea of bowls, she picked one of my class demo bowls where I did the white slip swirl through the inside of the bowl. Looks even better with yummy soup inside!!!

And then during class tonight, Shea surprised me with a gift! She gave me one of her beautiful slip-trailed bowls… yeah me! I had mentioned that this one was my “favorites” of the slip-trailed bowls while she was doing it. And she remembered. Weeks later, after firing, glazing & firing again, it finally came out of the kiln. And looked beautiful. Can’t wait to add some of my own soup into it… or better yet, hot fudge with some ice cream… merely the vehicle to get the hot fudge into my mouth! Thank You Shea!!!

Congratulations to one of my students for making the Show-Off Shelves at Lillstreet!!! When the studio monitors unload the glaze kiln, they typically pick out their favorite pieces to put on the shelves. And one of my more advanced beginners made it to the shelf this time!!! When I was leaving last night, I saw these two pots by Shea Michals on the shelves. She’s been doing a lot designs with slip trailing… and finally glazed a couple of them. With great success!!!

Unfortunately, a couple weeks ago, she was told by another clay teacher that the amber celadon glaze would just run off and that she shouldn’t use it. Slightly afraid & now paranoid, she washed it all off the pots. She told me the story and I told her that was crazy! The amber celadon glaze is pretty stable, and with all of the raised slip trails, the glaze is going to pool & puddle along the way instead of running off. So we glazed it together last week during class and… apparently I was right!!! Not only did the glaze NOT run off the pot, but it came out beautifully!!! It broke really well and really accentuated the white slip trailing. Nicely done Shea… keep up the good work!!!

You know I usually cringe when one of my students starts off with that.
“So I saw this video on YouTube…”

I love when there are so many tips & tricks out there for potters, but frequently they’re also learning “bad” tricks along the way. So I’ve tried to steer clear of YouTube for the most part. But recently, I did do a quick search looking for new techniques to share with my students. This week is Week Eight for my class so they’re well on their way… and ready for some more surface decorating techniques.

We’ve already used colored slip to change the color “skin” of their work. But when I saw this slip trailing… err, dripping… I though that my students would love this trick. And it’s not too advanced. It appeared to be pretty easy… so of course I decided to go for it. And “teach” this technique to my students without ever practicing myself!!! And quite honestly… I think it worked out pretty well. Click here for the YouTube video of slip trailing on a bowl. You may not understand a word he says… but the video alone is pretty mesmerizing! Here’s a still shot from the video…

Basically, you cover the surface with a thick layer of slip. The add a couple spirals. Then add some “drips” that will run down through the drawn spirals. The demo pieces on the video are a bit cleaner than mine… but I’m sure he’s been doing this technique a bit longer than me. Can you say 10 minutes?!

And once I had some confidence after the bowl, we tackled a more vertical surface on a taller vase. More room for the slip to run & drip. Click here for the YouTube video of slip trailing on a vase. Again, I think the potter may be speaking Russian?… and I’m not sure if this is “his” signature style or if it is more of a traditional Ukranian style of decoration? Here’s a still shot from the video…

We did learn a few things along the way. My slips probably should have been sieved through a fine mesh screen. And I should have tried to get them all to be a better consistency… a couple of them were a bit too watery. And I think I needed to make the base layer and the horizontal spiral with thicker slip so that there was enough slip to “move” as the drips pushed down.

After we had “played” with drippy slips, I switched it up and did a much cleaner demo for my class. I took a wet-leatherhard bowl and did a carved texture pattern around the outside wising my round loop trimming tool and a smaller sgraffito loop tool. It’s a carving technique I learned from Amy Higgason of Pigeon Road Pottery. She used to be one of the Lillstreet studio artists, but now she lives up in the Wisconsin Northwoods. Luckily, she has shared her carving techniques and they still pop-up from time to time. In fact, she even did a demo for my class a few years back… click here to go to the blog post!

So now all three pieces are done, back up in my studio, and wrapped up for the night. I still need to trim the slip decorated pieces, but I need to wait until the slip is a bit dryer. All in all, I think it was a pretty successful evening. Several of my students gave it a shot & had fun with drippy slip… and I hope when they get around to trimming a few more pieces they may consider some decorative carving!!!

Just saw this on the Internet and had to share…
It’s a pretty cool, time-lapse video of potter Charan Sachar doing some fun slip trailing. Each on their own is not too intricate. Not too difficult. It’s a technique that I’ve done before, and showed my students how to do as well. But it’s the ease, clarity and consistency that he shows off in the video… again… and again… and again… it’s almost dizzying!

Click here to see the time-lapse video of Charan Sacher.

And then, it looks like they’re glazed & fired to finish them off… like most pots! But it’s the geometric patterns and slightly raised slip decorations that give them a pop of fun! And now I somehow feel like I need to go get a henna tattoo?!