CLAY BOWL WHEEL THROWN 12 8 26.

Okay, so I'm centering the clay, or at least padding into place. Now I'm centering the clay. The clay in this run is a little bit moister than usual, so it's easy to move up and down. I have to be a little more careful with it, since it's a little bit moister, but it's still relatively easy to use. Here I am compressing the base of the bowl, making sure it's nice and level and packed down, and there's a nice little curve on the edge where the wall starts to go up. Here I'm starting to do a pull on the clay, another pull. It's nice and smooth. I don't feel any bubbles or lumps in it. Doing another pull a little bit slower because I'm starting to spread it out a little more with each one of the pulls. As you can see on the right side, the piece starts out at the bottom a lot smaller than it is at the top when it's completed, so I have to leave a little bit thicker edge at the top there for the spread as it opens up towards the final part of the throwing. It's feeling pretty good. I'm using the rib now to compress the outside surface as I both shape it and pull it out a little bit more. This piece will be, uh, when it's finished with the throwing, it will be allowed to go to leather, leather hard, and then it'll be stained, and then it'll be carved, relief carved, and then after that it will be bisque fired, and then after that it'll have a semi-transparent glaze on it, and the stain that's on it that's relief carved will be a black surface with a semi-transparent glaze on it when it's finally fired at cone six for the second firing, and I'll be able to see the pattern beneath the semi-transparent glaze. So the piece is taking shape now, and I'm just working a little bit, giving it a little bit of a smoother curve on the outside body of the bowl, so the rib is doing most of the work here. The sponge on the inside just kind of helps me map out the area I'm at, and the curve with the rib on the outside is kind of what helps me shape the slow curve on the exterior. Here I am compressing the inside surface down again, making sure that transaction from the base to the wall is nice and smooth. Just a real light touch up here with the rib, give that a nice smooth flow from the base to the top of the lip. So it's relatively round and looks like it's in pretty good shape, so now I'll just let it dry till it's leather hard, then I'll stain it, and then I'll get ready for my favorite part, which is the carving, or the relief carving of the piece. That's what I enjoy most about making these pieces, is the actual carving. So I usually make the larger pieces for the carving part alone.