Slipping and carving bowls? Sorta sounds bad, like they’re slipping off a shelf and then getting carved up like a Thanksgiving turkey or something. Don’t worry– Definitely not the case.

Slip is what we apply our some of our pieces. Specifically, the ones that end up getting patterns carved into them. Hence the slipping and carving.

Some people may associate the colors on finished pottery to all being different glazes, but that’s not necessarily the case. Slip and glaze are two different things. Slips are most commonly made using basically a mix of clay and water and commonly a colorant is added as well, usually some kind of stain or oxide.

Glazes on the other hand use a combination of different chemicals and ingredients that combine together to form a permanent surface that covers the finished and fired piece of pottery. Glazes can have a range of finishes, from a matte finish to a glossy finish.

Above: A rolled and pre-cut slab is shown resting on top of a hump mold before it’s been pushed down over the mold to form the bowl’s shape.

Next + Below: That same slab after it was pushed down over the mold. On the right (or middle if you’re on your cell), the slab’s texture has been smoothed out. The photo on the bottom shows four smoothed out bowls resting on their molds. They will sit like that, drying out a bit, then they’ll be flipped over and we’ll apply the slip.

Some finished bowls after their slip has been applied. Now it’s carving time!

We wrote a post earlier ago about carving trays and tumblers. The process for carving patterns into any piece is mostly more or less the same, only now we’re just doing it on small bowls instead.

Please enjoy these last three photos that illustrate a few different phases of a geometric pattern being carved into the bowl’s surface.

Thanks for virtually joining us in the studio. Next time, coming to a pottery blog near you…

If you follow along on instagram, it will be no surprise, as you’ve seen some peeks already. It’s thrown porcelain mugs time! (I may or may not have a very specific custom request for a new coffee mug) Stay tuned on that.

In the meantime though, happy Friday. Hope everyone is enjoying this turn of warmer weather here in the midwest and to all our relatives and friends in Texas, we’re thinking of you!

xo, ClaiRe