Sgraffito Pinch Bowl Part Two

There are plenty of pink flamingos in Florida, but I've never seen a pink elephant till now. The elephant is a fiberglass sculpture about 10 feet high and graces the front of an auto repair business in Inverness, Florida. There was a label on the trailer saying something about it being the brother's folly. This folly made me jolly! How about you?


In the previous post I showed how I made the pinched bowl. In this post I'll show how I make and apply the slip or terra sigilatta to the bowl. For the slip I take bits of some contrasting clay and drop small pieces in a bowl and let it dry out completely. Later I add water to rehydrate the clay into a think slip. As the clay is re hydrating I love to put the container up to my ear to listen to the water reabsorbing into the clay. It makes a wonderful fizzing sound as the water is reabsorbed into the clay.


Once the clay has re hydrated I stir the clay into a smooth mixture and add more water if necessary to make it as thin as cream. For terra sig I cover the container with a tight fitting lid and set it aside to settle out for 24 hours and syphon out the excess water. This time I left the mixture too long and the water evaporated, so I used the top layer of clay that was left to make my clay slip.


If you're wondering how much clay or water I use, I am sorry to report, I don't make measurements. I make my slip, terra sigilatta, and ceramics pieces by the seat of my pants. I look at the ingredients and adjust them as I go along, much like I cook meals, adding a little of this or that to make it just right. Above is the bone dry pinched bowl ready to accept the slip.


See the rusty chip brush sitting on the wood ware board. That brush is my very favorite brush. The brush is 100% pure bristle, made in Indonesia. If you find pure natural bristle, I don't think you can go wrong with them. I happened to pick this one up at a big box store and I treasure it. Above I've started to apply the slip with the natural bristle chip brush. I apply the slip in a circular motion.


For the photo above I have the bowl almost complete covered in slip. I let the slip dry and then I apply two more coats. I let each coat of slip dry between applications. This post taking longer than I expected, so I'll continue on how to scribe the sgraffito into the bowl in the next post. Oh, be sure to come back because I have a unique Florida critter to show you.

Sgraffito Pinch Bowl Part One

One of my readers asked if I'd do a tutorial on how to make this sgraffito bowl. Today I am using red clay so the bowl will eventually be covered with white slip and I'll then use sgraffito to reveal orange stripes. For the bowl above I used red slip over the white stoneware so the stripes are white. Today I'll show how I pinch the bowl into it's final shape. Then in the next post I'll show how I make the slip and carve the sgraffito.


I start out with about 1/2 pound of clay which I cut off a block of soft clay in a 2 x 2 inch square. I hold the block of clay in one hand and I vigorously hit each of the four corners of the block of clay with the palm of my other hand. My aim at this point is to round out all the square edges and to compress the clay into a nice round ball.



Once the clay is shaped and compressed I take the thumb of my left hand and press it into the top of the ball of clay almost to the bottom of the clay making sure I don't press all the way through. Then I start the process of pinching the clay from the inside and outside into the shape of a bowl. I slowly move the clay at the bottom of the bowl up to the top a little at a time, rotating the bowl in a circle as I go - pinch a little up, turn a little, pinch a little up , turn a little and so on.


Since I've become very familiar with this clay I can pinch and rotate quickly and efficiently setting up a rhythm as I go - pinching, turning, pinching, turning. As I'm pinching and turning I'm constantly checking to be sure the walls of the bowl aren't getting too thin. I also smooth all the surfaces of the bowl as I go, both inside and out.


If the bowl becomes too thin or starts to flop I wait a bit for the clay to firm up. If the clay starts to show very thin drying cracks I smooth them over with my finger and if the clay is too dry I dab my finger in some water shake it off and dab just a bit of moisture on the clay to cover the crack, rubbing the moistened clay to smooth over the fine cracks as I go.


Once the bowl is formed in an upright position I smooth the inside and outside of the bowl and feel with my fingers to be sure the walls of the bowl are the same thickness.


At this point the clay becomes really soft and shows finger prints easily. To work on the underside of the bowl, I use a dry sponge and balance the bowl on a jar. I also make use of the dry sponge to support the opposite side of the bowl I am pinching.



After I smooth all the surfaces, and while the bowl is still quite pliable, I immediately start to bend the rim of the bowl over a little at a time. At this point I am gently coaxing the clay into a different position, being careful not to stretch the clay too far all at once and tear it.


All the while I'm keeping a close eye on the surface of the clay to be sure it doesn't stretch too thin or develop any fine cracks, checking the front and back of the bowl regularly. My goal is to bend the rim of the bowl almost completely over to the depth of the inside of the bowl. Once I am satisfied at the shape of the bowl I set it aside to dry. The first couple of days the bowl is drying I keep it lightly covered with plastic and I move it so the bottom doesn't stay wet. I also check to be sure the edges are not getting too dry.


Stay tuned next time for Part Two of how I make the slip, apply it to the bowl and carve the sgraffito into the bowl. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Crystal Blue Persuasion

skies are blue

beaches are empty

water is clear

on the pier

Fort Island gulf beach pier

Crystal Blue Persuasion

Tides of Mont St. Michel

Eventually I was drawn in by the rhythm of the prose in the novel Tides of Mont St. Michel written by Roger Vercel and translated from the French in 1934. At first I had to push myself through the words almost as if I was wading through the sands and tides surrounding the island. Likewise the main character Andre found himself won over by the austere yet ever changing abbey landscape where he experienced adventure, social adjustment, and moral conflict along the way. I found more than a few parallels in my quest in the world today.

Meanwhile we have hunkered down in Ocala, Florida for a much needed rest after crossing 2600, sometimes harrowing, miles. We plan to look around and visit a few beaches. I want to get some work fired and work on some more.


The bowl above is a pinched stoneware bowl where I rolled the rim out and over almost touching the base. Later I applied some Navajo wheel terra sig and used sgraffito to scribe the lines. I was surprised how deep I had to make the cuts to uncover the white clay below. I'd like to put a bit of cobalt blue glass in the bottom center of the bowl. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Happy Valentines

Happy Valentines Day. I made this bowl when I was working with the cassius basaltic (black) clay and thought to save it to express my thoughts for today. Don't they look like chocolate hearts? They won't put on an ounce of fat, these are feel good chocolate hearts. Have a feel good day, your way.

Simple Trust

This church was restored by the local community of Toyahvale, Texas. We took a photo of the exterior, expecting the church to be locked. But we were wrong; the door had a magnet to keep it from opening in the wind. We were happy to be trusted to go in the church and see the simple interior.


I have 25 pounds of this sculpture clay which has large hunks of beige grog in it. Working with this clay is a real challenge. What can I do with clay that's so rough and has so much grog in it? Why did I even get this clay. If I had known in advance what it was like I never would have purchased it.


Since I have the clay, I'll have to use it. So, I decided to pinch some forms, leave them rough in texture, then alter them. Since the clay texture is rough, there's no way I can change that. It isn't easy to make rough and altered pieces pleasing to my eye.


I find it much easier to make a smooth form than to make rough and altered forms. Boy what a challenge I have for myself with this 25 pounds of clay.


Working with clay I find I just need to have simple trust. Trusting I can achieve what I want if I keep trying, keep practicing.


There wasn't much decoration in the church except this painting on the wall. I'm not sure what material was used; the texture is rough and rustic, and yet there's a lot of detail. That's something I'd like to achieve with this sculpture clay. Perhaps I need to make sculptures instead of functional forms, those would look much better with this clay. I'd really like to make some buildings like this church and some mountain cabins, not sure they'd make it traveling in the motorhome. So for now I'll  make pieces that won't tip over in the motorhome. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Dream Traveling

On this trip across the country we're doing a bit dream traveling rather than real traveling. Dream traveling is where we drive by a certain area and dream of what we would do if we had unlimited time and finances. We're passing a few states by, but I have ulterior motives. We're conserving as much as we can so we can get a new home and a studio too. Travel along with us across the last three states of dream traveling.

Dream Traveling Louisiana

We pulled into a Louisiana RV park last night and I said, "Wouldn't it be fun if we hired a local person to take us up a bayou in a boat? We'd ride along and see alligators floating on the surface of the muddy water, hoping we didn't fall out of the boat or sink. We'd see unusual birds in the trees and animals crawling in the depths of the thick swampy forest. We'd dock on the banks of the river where we'd stop for dinner at a restaurant known only to locals. We'd have Cajun rice and beans and some crawdads too". Gary said, "Later there'd be folks playing Zydeco music; local musicians playing all kinds of wonderful and unusual instruments, jamming all night long".

Dream Traveling Mississippi

We entered the state of Mississippi this morning and saw magnolia trees growing wild along the highway. I said to Gary on the walkie talkie, "Look there's a Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Preserve. Wish we could stop and camp along the banks of the river. We'd walk along raised wood walkways and see the cranes up close and get some spectacular photos". Gary said, "Yeah, I remember the cranes flying over our house when we lived in Foresthill, we could hear them hooting so very high in the sky". I said, "I remember reading cranes fly higher than any other migrating bird". Gary said, "We could also take a riverboat trip down the mighty Mississippi and think about Tom Sawyer's travels along the way".

Dream Traveling Alabama

Later in the day, we were in Alabama and I remembered a trip we took to Dauphin Island in the early 1990's. I said to Gary on the walkie talkie, "Look there's the exit road to Dauphin Island. We could walk along the white sand beaches and gather sea shells. We'd see those huge live oak trees with all the Spanish moss hanging from the branches". Gary said, "We could visit Fort Gaines and walk through the ruins and think about the ships sailing in the waters and the battle's being fought so long ago".

How about you, do you do dream traveling like I do? Where does your dream traveling take you?

Hope you enjoyed our dream traveling; please come back again next week where we'll do some real traveling in the state of Florida.

On The Road Again

We're on the road again minus quite a few dollars for a new tire, new wheel, new studs, new axles, and new U bolts. We were pushing a major head wind today and our mileage was for naught, but the further east we go, the lower the fuel prices are getting. Of course, I couldn't help but think of Willie Nelson and his song, On The Road Again.



We planned on stopping in Kerrville before San Antonio because I really wanted to see Gay of Sister Creek Pottery. For the life of us, we couldn't find an RV Park that wasn't full, or was long enough for our 58 feet of length, or had a pull through, etc. etc. I plan on writing the Texas Tourism to let them know they need better signage for RV parks along the highway.


Meanwhile, the other day I thought I should make some slip from the Navajo Wheel clay in case I needed some. Luckily I had a plastic mayonnaise jar I just emptied and thought it would be perfect for storing slip. I slaked some dry clay in a paper bowl, stirred the mixture up a few hours later, and poured it into the jar. The next day I took the jar out of the cabinet and saw it had separated into perfect layers. Hey, I made terra sig and didn't even intend or try to make it. So I decided to syphon off the top layer of mostly water with a small syringe I had in my tool box.


A few weeks ago I read that Tracey Broome had used some terra sig on one of her beautiful large smoke fired pots. Then recently I read that Judy Shreve has been using terra sig on her earthen ware with wonderful results. I didn't measure anything, I just thought it looked good and thought to myself, why not give it a try. I rolled out a couple of slabs of clay and thought I'd make a few tiles. The slabs ended up round so I thought I'd make small bowls from the slabs.


I had collected some artifacts lying about at the trailer repair business (see the rock lying on the table) while we were there and decided to use one of those for texture along the rim of the slab. Then I dipped my favorite inexpensive goat hair chip brush into the top of the mayonnaise jar. Oh, excuse me, I dipped my brush into my perfectly prepared terra sigilatta and brushed the center of the slab with the terra sig. I let it dry to the touch. I noticed it was really smooth and shiny when I applied it. I should have been making terra sig all along it's much better than the lumpy slip I have been making. The terra sig took a while to dry and I didn't want the cats to step on it so I had to proceed sooner than I liked.


I might put a black edge on the rim of the bowl or dab some black slip onto the textured surface of the rim. What do you think? I think the white edge is too light for the center of the bowl. I may have to refresh my black lines, they seem to have been blotted by the paper hump mold I used. In the photo above the indentation of the paper hump mold I used can be seen in the bottom of the bowl. Dang, they looked so good before I put them in the mold, but they were a bit wet. Next time I need to let the terra sig dry before putting them on the molds. But what can I do working in an RV with three cats ready to walk on anything left about.


It's kind of like the bird house I saw at a Texas rest stop, the sign said, "Don't Mess With Texas"; next time I don't need to mess with my terra sig till the proper time.

Traveling Studio

By now you may have heard about our wheel mishap outside Fort Stockton. One of the wheels of the trailer being pulled behind our motorhome fell off. Since the wheel studs were sheared, the wheel wasn't salvageable. We needed a new wheel, tire, and new studs. Thankfully the other wheel on that side held so we didn't flip the trailer and thankfully no one was hurt in the mishap. The trailer holds my slab roller, hope it's OK.


I'm following Gary across the country in my SUV, which holds a good portion of my clay supplies like hump molds, books, glazes, etc. I saw the hubcap and then the tire rolling on the highway out of the corner of my eye. Once I saw no one was around us, I determined it was our tire that had fallen off. Luckily we have walkie talkies, formerly called handheld transceivers, and I immediately radioed Gary to pull over.


In the meantime, I thought you'd enjoy a tour of my traveling studio. I have clay in bags sitting on the floor of the motorhome. I use the dinette table with a towel and ware board placed on top as a work space. When I complete a piece I store the materials and ware board in any of the available space in the motorhome.


Here I am pinching a pot using some midrange Navajo Wheel clay which is a nice red color. I'm sitting at the work space I set up on the dinette table. I keep a bowl of water to rinse my hands and wet my sponge and change the water frequently. I dump the clay water outside so I don't clog the pipes of the motorhome. Below is a photo of greenware pieces from the Texas white stoneware I have stored in a box in the closet ready to be fired.


Perhaps I will find a place to bisque fire this work in San Antonio or another city city along the way. That way I can stack the bisque pieces on top of one another and have more room to make and dry more work. I get kind of antsy if I don't have my hands in clay. How about you, do you feel that way about clay when you're not working with it?


You can imagine greenware is starting to pile up around here. I'm only making pieces with flat bottoms and not too tall because the motorhome rocks back and forth going down the highway and drying pieces can tip over. If pieces are too green I have to put plastic bags around them to keep them from leaning against something and making a crease in the side I might not want.


We go to check on our trailer today and see what the damages are going to cost us. We plan on driving a little slower from now on, not that we were driving fast by any means. Here in Texas some speed limits are 80 mph. We have been driving no more than 55 mph pulling the trailer.


I leave you with a photo of a stone building we saw in Toyahvale, Texas near Balmorhea on a road trip we took yesterday while we wait for our trailer repair. Can you believe the color of that sky, it is almost purple blue. Wonder why there are two doors to enter the building? Comments and suggestions are encouraged.

Thinking Big

Things in Texas are so much bigger, so I've heard. This roadrunner sculpture is supposedly the largest roadrunner in the world. It measures 22 feet long, 11 feet tall, and 800 pounds. That's big.

When I read about this big roadrunner, I just had to go see it. Well because it's the biggest. Apparently the world is full of big sculptures, even in small towns. I also had get a photo thinking my friend Cindy Shake would appreciate this big sculpture. Cindy makes the most extraordinary and sometimes very big metal sculptures, and being from Alaska, the state that is the biggest, even bigger than Texas, I was sure Cindy would appreciate this big roadrunner.


Paisano Pete, as this roadrunner is affectionately called by the community of Fort Stockton, Texas, is made of fiberglass, is painted, and coated with a glossy coating to help preserve the bird. Roadrunners can fly, but are most often seen running. Unlike most birds, roadrunners have two toes pointing forward and two backward. This foot configuration is said to aid the bird in running faster. Roadrunners can reach speeds up to 20 miles per hour.

As I was doing research for this post, I came across an article saying that Las Cruces has the largest roadrunner. I was just in Las Cruces and somehow I missed seeing their roadrunner made of recycled parts. I was thinking to myself last night, darn I might have missed seeing the biggest roadrunner. How about your town or area, are there any big pieces of public art. Of course big doesn't necessarily have to big in size.

The more I see the more I realize just how big the world is, people are thinking big, doing big, making big; big in size, big on ideas, big in art, big in life. Even if something isn't the biggest, it's the thinking big and the doing that makes it big even if it isn't the biggest. Heck it could even be the smallest, it's still the biggest in my book. Here's to thinking big.

White Sands National Monument

Imagine walking on mounds of pure white gypsum sand. All you can see are miles and miles of sand dunes and above you are the panoramic New Mexico skies.


We're staying in an RV resort for a few days waiting out a rain storm so we're playing tourist while we're here. I thought you might enjoy a few photos from our visit to White Sands National Monument.


Before your path are 275 miles of sparkling white sand and above you are spectacular clouds in every shape you can think of set against crystal clear blue sky.


Far off in the distance you can see the outline of mountain ranges looking almost black in comparison to the white sea of sand you're walking on.


You can feel the wind blowing on your face but you can't hear a sound, except perhaps the occasional rustling of native grasses clinging to the edge of the dunes.


Comments are welcome.