Thursday 8 May 2014

Pottery Class #4!

I made it to my pottery class last night! I also made it to physio in the morning which was must less exciting after having not gone for a week. My oxygen levels were pretty low even though I was trying to take it easy. Argh!! Stupid lungs. Hopefully they can bounce back by next week when I'm scheduled for a 6 minute walk test.

At pottery class, I went thinking that the first thing I would do, would be fix up the bowl that I had saved from the second week. It was a good idea but the instructor told me that the bowl was too dried out to do anything with and that I could scrape it a bit but it would crack if I tried to shape it too much. So much for that plan! I spent the class on the pottery wheel. I have a great ability to make bowls that have no bottom as well as ones with walls so thin in the middle that they collapse onto itself. That takes real talent.

I successfully made two small goblets and one small cup thing. The instructor told me that the goblets are usually made in two pieces (a small bowl-like shape at the bottom, and a large round cup for the top). That would explain how people get the base to look so good. I think it would mean I could make a large cup which would be nice as mine turned out pretty small. They are mostly small because that is about all the clay I can physically center on the wheel. It takes some serious muscle (more than mine) to get a large piece of clay to get centered evenly, way more muscle than I would have thought before this class. I have a hard enough time with small bits of clay that my dreams of throwing a giant vase have quickly disappeared.   

I also got all my pieces back from the kiln! My first pieces from class! One bowl, I decided that I'm going to repaint as it turned out a bit streaky but the rest I brought home. The salt and pepper shakers worked! To be honest, I only half believed when the guy said the blue would show up.

This week's creations!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Cool stuff!