Beggars Bowls

Getting beggars bowls made for this year's TideWater Souper Supper.

These are small bowls that have been thrown slightly thick for easy handling when full. 

This year, the event is giving me an opportunity to finally have a go at Jessica's hand cut footrings, and I love the results! It really helps contribute to the feeling of "swagger" I've been moving towards over the past few months.

Tidewater Souper Supper Finished Bowls Part 3

I'm aiming to hit the hoop this week. This was the third and final kiln load of bowls for the TideWater Souper Supper. It was a gas firing hosted by Delta Community College’s ceramic’s department.

Thanks’ Joe!

It’s been a long time since I’ve had to put a good amount of faith into student glazes. Any questions that were asked about the suggested application or behavior of any of the glazes were met with shrugs.”Eh?” Guess that’s par for the course. Love a challenge though. Here are six of 30.

TideWater Souper Supper Finished Bowls Part 2

So after spending days and days of throwing, slipping, and glazing oodles and oodles of bowls… I’ve finally unloaded the 2nd of 3 glaze kilns that I’m burning for the TideWater’s Souper Supper fundraiser. Here’s 6 bowls from the second kiln load.

This is a quick selection from the second kiln load of 40 bowls for this year’s TideWater’s Souper Supper fund raiser. I’m really happy; there are a lot of very nice pieces this year. I’ve only lost 3 bowls this time through. One more kiln load to open still. This last load is part of a kiln load up at the local community college’s gas kiln. Professor Joe Mariscal volunteered to donate kiln space for a community cone 10 gas firing in support of the project.
Thanks Joe!
It’s been cooling down for a few days; it’ll be ready to be opened first thing tomorrow morning. The anticipation is needling me.

TideWater Souper Supper Finished Bowls Part 1

So after spending days and days of throwing, slipping, and glazing oodles and oodles of bowls… I’ve finally unloaded the first of 3 glaze kilns that I’m burning for the TideWater’s Souper Supper fundraiser. Here’s 8 bowls from the first load of 50.

Slipped Rim

This project spun out of this winter’s bowl marathon for the Tidewater Gallery’s annual soup feed. I throw about 7 batches total, 10 to 17 bowls at a time and break these down into smaller separate groups for handling the surface decoration. This is how I generally prefer to create my work. I enjoy working in series of 5 -15 pieces at a time, this lets me explore any new idea or technique a little before drawing any initial conclusions and making any changes in my approach.
This started with a big 3 gallon bucket of white slip I made using the trimmings from my standard white clay body. The trimmings were added to the water and allowed to soak overnight. After a night of soaking I mixed it up with my trusty paint mixer on a drill and added a tablespoon of deflocculate (sodium silicate) and more water until the slip reached the consistency of a thick heavy cream. The sodium silicate lets the clay platelets to slide over each other easier so I don’t have to add so much water to the mix to get the slip to the consistency I want.
Next, I had an idea of what I wanted to try… might work, might not. Going to find out though. So I made some thumbnail sketches to keep me pointed in a direction. I’ll usually have 2 or 3 experiments going on at any one time and I have a tendency to become easily distracted. I’ve learned it’s a good idea to leave a trail of bread crumbs leading back to the project at hand.

With this idea, I’m using a contrasting red

stoneware clay for the body and I’ve applied a simple paper stenciled sponged cobalt slip design around the lower half of the belly.
After the stenciled design has dried sufficiently to gently handle, I invert the bowl and pour the slip over the upper half.

I really like the effect and I’m excited about trying a dynamic gaze combination I’ve been thinking about…

stay tuned...

Click below to view the process.

TideWater Souper Supper

What do you say if the local gallery asks you to produce 250 bowls in 60 days?They’ll pay for the materials, the firing costs, provide floor space at their gallery to host a spring show, and even feed you at a fantastic gourmet soup feed surrounded by 250 local patrons of the arts.

I say “YES!”

Since 2002 I’ve been part of the stable of ceramicists that have helped contribute to this event. I’ve always looked forward to this event, being very happy to be just part of the background. It’s always been an amazing opportunity to explore and develop new ideas for surface designs and forms. It’s a project that’s never failed to propel me forward into a new year.
This year was something very new though… they asked me to recruit and organize the ceramic artists needed for this year’s event and I’ve found 10 amazing local ceramic artists to stand with me so far. With 27 days left, and over 200 plus pieces still in green ware, we’ll see how this all works out. You’ll be hearing more about this as the due date February 6th approaches.
Stay Tuned…