picked up my pieces today from class. Strangely, the bud vase and one of my teadust mugs had fused together in one spot during the firing, but I was able to snap them apart without much trouble. The teadust sure does run!
I couldn't find one piece... the little goblet that had broken while glazing. Zach found it in back with a note saying the tech didn't feel good about putting it in the kiln, if the top fell off while firing, it could totally ruin another piece or the kiln shelf... I guess I understand. I went ahead and threw it away. sad.
I spent about 30 minutes at the grinder making the places where the teadust actually had stuck to the shelf look less terrible... and then I packed up my stuff and came home!
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Friday, December 7, 2007
Hana's last class: pit fire!!
The last class of the quarter. As you know, we've been leading up to this class for a while, when we decided to do a pit firing. Really great idea, actually, since otherwise the last class would just consist of picking up our finished pieces.
I stopped by the studio on my way to Gary's house. I was able to find all my finished glazed things, I think (and with Jackie's help), and will follow up in another post with pictures of those.
Then, to Gary's. I showed up about ten minutes late, with my two pieces, a camping chair, and a bottle of wine. Other people were also starting to show up, and they brought all sorts of food and lots of wood. We each stuck our pieces into a pit at the end of the yard (next to a chicken coop!) which was filled with sawdust. Then we filled it in with a layer of kindling.
We all stood around a bit awkwardly for a few minutes, then Gary asked who would like to start the fire. No one really did anything, so Gary went and got a flaming piece of wood out of the little oven thing that he had made a while back and stuck it into the pit. Suddenly I found myself at the edge of the pit, blowing on the flames and sticking bits of kindling around, and basically all in charge. It was funny. It was a large pit, so a couple other people joined me, but I'm proud to say that my third of the pit was up and roaring first. Hehe.
Here's a picture of all of us building the fire. Strangely enough, the three of us (I'm not pictured) are also the least talkative of the group, and I think having something constructive to do was a relief for us.
While we were building, everyone else got all the food set up, and there was sake and glugg warming up inside on the stove.
Once the fire was really going, (see the second picture) I started wandering around, snacking, and attempting to chat with the others.
I found Gary's pottery shed, which was filled with great pieces and also, is that... yes! Our group project was all lined up on the shelves in there. All the little sake cups, each one completely unique, and no one could tell which ones they had thrown. Gary told us all to take one, and use it to drink the sake. So we did.
For a while, I stood around and looked at the fire, sipping sake, then a little glugg, and finally a few little cups worth of the wine I'd brought. The sake cup I'd chosen was so small (maybe one ounce?), that I was sure I'd only had about a glass or two worth of wine by the end of the night. Tell that to my hangover today though, hoo-boy.
Occasionally throughout the night, Gary would call out, "Round Two!" or "Round Three!" and we'd all rush into the little pottery shed and pick out another little sake cup from our group collection. By the end of the night, we each had at least four little cups to take home.
After we had run out of wood, several hours later, the pit looked like the third picture. You could see all of our pieces hidden about in there, glowing white. I had to leave at this point, but after this, Gary and whoever was left were going to fill in the pit with sand and leave it for a couple days to cool. I guess if the pieces cool too fast, they can crack. I'll be going back Saturday morning to dig through the ashes to find my pieces.
I stopped by the studio on my way to Gary's house. I was able to find all my finished glazed things, I think (and with Jackie's help), and will follow up in another post with pictures of those.
Then, to Gary's. I showed up about ten minutes late, with my two pieces, a camping chair, and a bottle of wine. Other people were also starting to show up, and they brought all sorts of food and lots of wood. We each stuck our pieces into a pit at the end of the yard (next to a chicken coop!) which was filled with sawdust. Then we filled it in with a layer of kindling.
We all stood around a bit awkwardly for a few minutes, then Gary asked who would like to start the fire. No one really did anything, so Gary went and got a flaming piece of wood out of the little oven thing that he had made a while back and stuck it into the pit. Suddenly I found myself at the edge of the pit, blowing on the flames and sticking bits of kindling around, and basically all in charge. It was funny. It was a large pit, so a couple other people joined me, but I'm proud to say that my third of the pit was up and roaring first. Hehe.
Here's a picture of all of us building the fire. Strangely enough, the three of us (I'm not pictured) are also the least talkative of the group, and I think having something constructive to do was a relief for us.While we were building, everyone else got all the food set up, and there was sake and glugg warming up inside on the stove.
Once the fire was really going, (see the second picture) I started wandering around, snacking, and attempting to chat with the others.
I found Gary's pottery shed, which was filled with great pieces and also, is that... yes! Our group project was all lined up on the shelves in there. All the little sake cups, each one completely unique, and no one could tell which ones they had thrown. Gary told us all to take one, and use it to drink the sake. So we did.
For a while, I stood around and looked at the fire, sipping sake, then a little glugg, and finally a few little cups worth of the wine I'd brought. The sake cup I'd chosen was so small (maybe one ounce?), that I was sure I'd only had about a glass or two worth of wine by the end of the night. Tell that to my hangover today though, hoo-boy.Occasionally throughout the night, Gary would call out, "Round Two!" or "Round Three!" and we'd all rush into the little pottery shed and pick out another little sake cup from our group collection. By the end of the night, we each had at least four little cups to take home.
After we had run out of wood, several hours later, the pit looked like the third picture. You could see all of our pieces hidden about in there, glowing white. I had to leave at this point, but after this, Gary and whoever was left were going to fill in the pit with sand and leave it for a couple days to cool. I guess if the pieces cool too fast, they can crack. I'll be going back Saturday morning to dig through the ashes to find my pieces.
Monday, December 3, 2007
j's 9th class (oh, the many things to glaze!)
right. Showed up to class pretty much on time. It was snowing gently on my way into class... coffee in hand. I hate to say this, but it really is kinda magical to be in a starbucks getting coffee while it's snowing outside. Everyone in there feels special when that happens.
I arrived first to class (after Zach ofcourse). Judy and 2 other students wandered in later.
I started rooting around in the bisque shelves. Kept finding things I forgot I made while looking for something I had the derndest time trying to find (a little sake pitcher was hiding inside a pot by another artist). FINALLY I had all my pieces.
The instructors of the ceramics lab had covered a couple of the canvas-topped tables with plastic so people could glaze out in the main room. Since no one was really in my class, and the radio (playing NPR's saturday morning favorites) was in the main room, I went ahead and filled a couple plastic bowls full of the various glazes I was interested in, and set myself up in the main room to glaze.
I sat and glazed and glazed and sat.
At some point other students came in to use the open lab hours (I was annoyed that they started showing up early actually, THEIR open lab didn't start till 1:30pm, but they started showing up around 11:30am... blah). And Zach teased me for using all the measuring cups from the glaze room at one time. I guess these other students needed them. I went ahead and washed up the ones I was done with (luckily I was done with a couple of the glazes at this time) while mock-grumping about how I was having fun by myself before other people showed up.
I think I ended up glazing 5 mugs, 3 trays, 6 little cups, 2 sake pitchers, 1 bottle-like thing, a bud vase, 2 small goblets (one of them broke while I was glazing it actually! I decided to try and glaze it back together tho, so we'll see how that goes), and a small assortment of other hand-built things.
Anyway, I finished up around 2:30... and was hungry and sleepy.
And, that's that. I have nothing left to work on. I guess next class I pickup my stuff! Here's hoping they come out!!!
I arrived first to class (after Zach ofcourse). Judy and 2 other students wandered in later.
I started rooting around in the bisque shelves. Kept finding things I forgot I made while looking for something I had the derndest time trying to find (a little sake pitcher was hiding inside a pot by another artist). FINALLY I had all my pieces.
The instructors of the ceramics lab had covered a couple of the canvas-topped tables with plastic so people could glaze out in the main room. Since no one was really in my class, and the radio (playing NPR's saturday morning favorites) was in the main room, I went ahead and filled a couple plastic bowls full of the various glazes I was interested in, and set myself up in the main room to glaze.
I sat and glazed and glazed and sat.
At some point other students came in to use the open lab hours (I was annoyed that they started showing up early actually, THEIR open lab didn't start till 1:30pm, but they started showing up around 11:30am... blah). And Zach teased me for using all the measuring cups from the glaze room at one time. I guess these other students needed them. I went ahead and washed up the ones I was done with (luckily I was done with a couple of the glazes at this time) while mock-grumping about how I was having fun by myself before other people showed up.
I think I ended up glazing 5 mugs, 3 trays, 6 little cups, 2 sake pitchers, 1 bottle-like thing, a bud vase, 2 small goblets (one of them broke while I was glazing it actually! I decided to try and glaze it back together tho, so we'll see how that goes), and a small assortment of other hand-built things.
Anyway, I finished up around 2:30... and was hungry and sleepy.
And, that's that. I have nothing left to work on. I guess next class I pickup my stuff! Here's hoping they come out!!!
Friday, November 30, 2007
Hana's ninth class
This was our last class in the classroom. Our last class will be at Gary's house, doing a large pit firing. So, today was the last day to glaze and prepare our pit fire pieces.
First, I wandered around looking for all my bisque-fired pieces. I will take a moment to describe a scene from "Ozma of Oz" by L. Frank Baum. As summarized by Wikipedia:
The expedition journeys to the underground kingdom of the Nomes, where the Nome King reveals that he's turned the royal family into ornaments around his palace. The Oz people can guess which ornaments they are (he doesn't reveal that they are royal purple ones), but if they fail, they will also become ornaments. [When they are ready to guess, they touch the ornament and say "Oz".] Ozma, the twenty-seven soldiers of the Royal Army of Oz, the Tin Woodman, the Scarecrow, and Tik-Tok all suffer this fate (Dorothy escapes it only by touching a purple ornament in one of her guesses).
Every time I'm confronted by a wall of bisque-fired pots, I think of this scene in the book. I scan the shelves, and hesitantly pick up one piece to check the signature on the bottom. I sometimes even think the word "Oz" to myself. It's silly.
Anyway, I found the four pieces I had bisque fired a long time ago, and then set out to find all the ones I'd finished in the eighth class. I only found 5. How many did I make? I feel like I didn't find them all, but I didn't remember what I had finished.
Then I went into the glazing room to do my first glazing of the quarter. I really don't like glazing. I don't feel very creative in that step, and it's so easy to mess a piece up. If you're unfamiliar with the studio's glazes, you don't know how thick to do it, how much it will run, etc. Oh well! I just dove in and dipped my pieces in various buckets. We'll see how they come out. I did two of my spherical pots in black, a couple in copper green, a couple in "maria's blue" (seems like a nice blue-green shiny one), a piece in the mottled brown with green flecks, and one in a dark blue. I did layering on two pieces. The wonky piece (the attempted round piece that squooshed on the wheel) has a base of I think blue and then maybe green around the rim and running down one side so that it pools in the wonkiness. I did another round piece in brown with black around the rim and running down the sides in three kind-of stripes.
Unfortunately, the first piece I tried to glaze, one of my first mugs, really came out poorly. The glaze was really lumpy and not very deep in the bucket, so it really stuck to the pot and looked awful. I decided to scrape a bunch of the glaze off (particularly the clumps, which could run badly) and then do a coating glaze in clear. Well, after that it never dried much, and then I made the bad mistake of setting it upside down to clean the bottom, and all the glaze came off the rim. Between that and the finger smudges and the likelihood of it not drying in time to try again, and it being the last class, I ended up just throwing the cup away in frustration.
Finally, I prepared my two pieces for the pit fire. They came out of the bisque looking really nice, though not nearly as shiny as some other people's. We were supposed to coat them sith stuff, and wrap them up in flammables, but I wasn't very energetic at this point. I put a bunch of powdery random things inside one (tea grounds, some spices) and then wrapped copper wire around the outside. The other I brushed a glue/water slip over it and sprinkled some herbs all over the outside. I then wrapped it with corn husk and a small branch of pine needles, and wrapped the whole thing in newspaper to keep it together. Now I just have to remember to take them to next week's pit fire at Gary's.
I got home feeling worn out and kind of frustrated. I love throwing on the wheel so much, but some of the other steps just feel like work.
First, I wandered around looking for all my bisque-fired pieces. I will take a moment to describe a scene from "Ozma of Oz" by L. Frank Baum. As summarized by Wikipedia:
The expedition journeys to the underground kingdom of the Nomes, where the Nome King reveals that he's turned the royal family into ornaments around his palace. The Oz people can guess which ornaments they are (he doesn't reveal that they are royal purple ones), but if they fail, they will also become ornaments. [When they are ready to guess, they touch the ornament and say "Oz".] Ozma, the twenty-seven soldiers of the Royal Army of Oz, the Tin Woodman, the Scarecrow, and Tik-Tok all suffer this fate (Dorothy escapes it only by touching a purple ornament in one of her guesses).
Every time I'm confronted by a wall of bisque-fired pots, I think of this scene in the book. I scan the shelves, and hesitantly pick up one piece to check the signature on the bottom. I sometimes even think the word "Oz" to myself. It's silly.
Anyway, I found the four pieces I had bisque fired a long time ago, and then set out to find all the ones I'd finished in the eighth class. I only found 5. How many did I make? I feel like I didn't find them all, but I didn't remember what I had finished.
Then I went into the glazing room to do my first glazing of the quarter. I really don't like glazing. I don't feel very creative in that step, and it's so easy to mess a piece up. If you're unfamiliar with the studio's glazes, you don't know how thick to do it, how much it will run, etc. Oh well! I just dove in and dipped my pieces in various buckets. We'll see how they come out. I did two of my spherical pots in black, a couple in copper green, a couple in "maria's blue" (seems like a nice blue-green shiny one), a piece in the mottled brown with green flecks, and one in a dark blue. I did layering on two pieces. The wonky piece (the attempted round piece that squooshed on the wheel) has a base of I think blue and then maybe green around the rim and running down one side so that it pools in the wonkiness. I did another round piece in brown with black around the rim and running down the sides in three kind-of stripes.
Unfortunately, the first piece I tried to glaze, one of my first mugs, really came out poorly. The glaze was really lumpy and not very deep in the bucket, so it really stuck to the pot and looked awful. I decided to scrape a bunch of the glaze off (particularly the clumps, which could run badly) and then do a coating glaze in clear. Well, after that it never dried much, and then I made the bad mistake of setting it upside down to clean the bottom, and all the glaze came off the rim. Between that and the finger smudges and the likelihood of it not drying in time to try again, and it being the last class, I ended up just throwing the cup away in frustration.
Finally, I prepared my two pieces for the pit fire. They came out of the bisque looking really nice, though not nearly as shiny as some other people's. We were supposed to coat them sith stuff, and wrap them up in flammables, but I wasn't very energetic at this point. I put a bunch of powdery random things inside one (tea grounds, some spices) and then wrapped copper wire around the outside. The other I brushed a glue/water slip over it and sprinkled some herbs all over the outside. I then wrapped it with corn husk and a small branch of pine needles, and wrapped the whole thing in newspaper to keep it together. Now I just have to remember to take them to next week's pit fire at Gary's.
I got home feeling worn out and kind of frustrated. I love throwing on the wheel so much, but some of the other steps just feel like work.
Monday, November 26, 2007
j's fourth open lab
I didn't have soccer on Tuesday last week, so I went out to pottery from 6-8:30pm with an agenda I HAD to succeed with.
I trimmed 6 tiny cups, 2 small sake pitchers, 1 bottle-shaped thingie, 1 bud vase, 2 small goblets, and 1 mug, and assembled a goblet, and attached a handle to the mug in that amount of time successfully... just by the hairs of my chinny chin chin.
Man that was a busy open lab.
I will probably show up to the open lab tonight to move items from the class shelves to the bisque cart now that they are dry. The bisque firing deadline for this semester was 9pm tonight.
I trimmed 6 tiny cups, 2 small sake pitchers, 1 bottle-shaped thingie, 1 bud vase, 2 small goblets, and 1 mug, and assembled a goblet, and attached a handle to the mug in that amount of time successfully... just by the hairs of my chinny chin chin.
Man that was a busy open lab.
I will probably show up to the open lab tonight to move items from the class shelves to the bisque cart now that they are dry. The bisque firing deadline for this semester was 9pm tonight.
Monday, November 19, 2007
j's 8th class (hey look, my pottery!)
I showed up ON TIME this class. Whoah!
And, on the shelves there were a bunch of finished pottery, so I rooted through them and found my test tiles, and all the pieces I've glazed to date! Reduction firing is SO COOL. I love the way everything turned out.
Here are the 2 bowls and the wonky hand-built cup I made on day 1:
And here are the "five handled pieces" I made:
neato.
After this, I found that the handles on the mugs that I attached last week had cracked. Zach suggested I take mac10 clay dust and use that with vinegar water to patch it up. I did as he suggested and it appeared to work. Then I went ahead and trimmed the cup part of the little goblet I was working on in open lab this last week... and then slipped, scored, and attached that to the conical base.
Then I set to work making balls out of my reclaimed mac10 clay to throw with. Today was my last day to "begin new wet clay projects." I went ahead and started goofing off (no agenda really), and created some kind of bottle-shape which reminds me of the old genesis smoothie bottles they used to sell at Reed. After this I made a second squat conical base and another goblet cup (I was pretty impressed how my attached little goblet was looking, so I decided to try a second one), and then, with my last bit of clay I slowly attempted a tall skinny cylinder, which I then transformed into another cone. I was starting to have issues with the cone and Zach came over and helped me get it back under control... now it's like a little 6" tall bud vase. Kinda cute.
I was out of ready-clay, but not out of class time, so I went ahead and went into my bag of reclaimed mac10 clay that I thought was too dry to use, and kneaded it thoroughly with the really wet clay I took off of the wheel until it was all a consistent good-wetness. I made one last ball.
At the wheel, I used this to make a tall cylinder, and then used a wooden rib to help angle the walls outwards, but as straight as I could manage. The form is REALLY controlled, and I couldn't believe I had made it (granted it did take me a long time). I thought the form would make an exciting coffee mug.
After this I cleaned up my wheel.
I've got like a load of things to trim, attach, and finish up at the open lab on Tuesday evening now. But I can move all the bone-dry items on to the bisque cart on Monday (Nov 26) evening before the final bisque firing of the semester. After that it's GLAZE MANIA!
And, on the shelves there were a bunch of finished pottery, so I rooted through them and found my test tiles, and all the pieces I've glazed to date! Reduction firing is SO COOL. I love the way everything turned out.
Here are the 2 bowls and the wonky hand-built cup I made on day 1:
And here are the "five handled pieces" I made:
neato.
After this, I found that the handles on the mugs that I attached last week had cracked. Zach suggested I take mac10 clay dust and use that with vinegar water to patch it up. I did as he suggested and it appeared to work. Then I went ahead and trimmed the cup part of the little goblet I was working on in open lab this last week... and then slipped, scored, and attached that to the conical base.
Then I set to work making balls out of my reclaimed mac10 clay to throw with. Today was my last day to "begin new wet clay projects." I went ahead and started goofing off (no agenda really), and created some kind of bottle-shape which reminds me of the old genesis smoothie bottles they used to sell at Reed. After this I made a second squat conical base and another goblet cup (I was pretty impressed how my attached little goblet was looking, so I decided to try a second one), and then, with my last bit of clay I slowly attempted a tall skinny cylinder, which I then transformed into another cone. I was starting to have issues with the cone and Zach came over and helped me get it back under control... now it's like a little 6" tall bud vase. Kinda cute.
I was out of ready-clay, but not out of class time, so I went ahead and went into my bag of reclaimed mac10 clay that I thought was too dry to use, and kneaded it thoroughly with the really wet clay I took off of the wheel until it was all a consistent good-wetness. I made one last ball.
At the wheel, I used this to make a tall cylinder, and then used a wooden rib to help angle the walls outwards, but as straight as I could manage. The form is REALLY controlled, and I couldn't believe I had made it (granted it did take me a long time). I thought the form would make an exciting coffee mug.
After this I cleaned up my wheel.
I've got like a load of things to trim, attach, and finish up at the open lab on Tuesday evening now. But I can move all the bone-dry items on to the bisque cart on Monday (Nov 26) evening before the final bisque firing of the semester. After that it's GLAZE MANIA!
Friday, November 16, 2007
hana's 8th class
Only two classes left after this! Next class will be glazing, and the last class will be the pit fire at Gary's house. That means this was the last class to prepare stuff for the last bisque firing! Also, it was the class for preparing the pieces for the pit fire, which is actually pretty complicated it turns out. I had a lot of work to do.
First things first, I had to trim the pieces I wanted to pit fire before I could further prepare them. I set myself up at a wheel. I tried a new wheel this time since most of them were free, and lo, the one I used was completely silent! Halleluiah! Plus, the foot pedal was smooth, so I didn't have to use my hand on the manual speed control.
Trimming was pretty easy to do. I had created three round forms last time I was in class, and they were all really round, so it was easy to center them again and trim the bottoms. I picked the best two of the three forms and set them in the warm kiln to dry a bit more.
Then I set out to trim some of my other pieces. I had lots of pieces at this stage actually, I think 7 total. I started trimming my square bowl. I set it down on the wheel upside down and just stared at it for a while. How does one trim something that's not round? Plus the base was all squooshed from when I had to yank it off the wheel when I made it. After a couple tips from a neighbor, I tried to just ignore the whole square part and just focus on the wonky round part at the very bottom (now top). I had to treat my arm as a lathe, by trying to keep it still out in space and just trimming the outer most stuff off first. I had a good inch or so of junk to take off, since part of the wonkiness was caused by a large indent I had made with my thumb when yanking it off the wheel. I had to trim all the way in to the bottom of that indent.
About half way through, I took a break to start preparing my pit fire pieces. So, what I had to do was "burnish" the pieces. You brush terra sigillata onto the piece, let it sit for a moment to dry, then you rub it in. You can use a variety of tools to rub it in, but apparently the most popular in my class was a crumpled up plastic bag. So you rub it in all over, and then do it again. Each layer takes about 10 minutes to coat, dry, and rub, and we were recommended to do 6 layers or more. Some people did 10 or 15 layers. The more layers, the shinier your piece gets until finally some people's pieces looked like polished marble. It was amazing. My pieces developed a smooth luster, but didn't get shiny since I had to keep going back to the wheel and trimming another piece.
For the rest of the night, I alternated with trimming a piece and then doing another layer of terra sig. I eventually trimmed my square bowl down to a nice foot. Hurrah! I wasn't sure that was going to make it. When I finished I did notice that the bottom got pretty thin, I'm lucky I stopped when I did and didn't trim through the bottom.
I also trimmed my weird piece that collapsed when I was trying to make a round form. It got a couple of appreciative comments from people, so I'm glad I kept it. It really does look strange.
I also trimmed my one tall piece (I didn't do the two layers like we were shown, but even with the one layer it got taller than anything else I've thrown). That was pretty easy to trim since it had dried out a bit. If it was wetter I was worried the height would be a problem, maybe causing it to collapse on itself.
Finally, I trimmed a little piece I threw I think the first day and never went back to. I was going to make a little pot with lid, but I never made a lid, and it was too late now. So I trimmed off the lip I had made for the lid to turn it just into a little bowl/cup thing (something to put random little stuff in!).
The last half hour I spend frantically cleaning my wheel and getting as many more layers on my pit fire pieces as I could. I think I ended up with about 6 layers on each piece, which isn't too shabby.
Next time (not next week, due to Thanksgiving) we will glaze all remaining items, and also bring stuff to wrap our pit fire pieces in. Gary suggested experimenting by bringing anything in that burns. Seaweed (the salt is especially good), sticks of lavender, pine cones, grass, weeds, whatever. Also copper wire, if anyone has any. I guess that will leave nice lines of green on the piece. Exciting! I'm going to have to go collecting.
First things first, I had to trim the pieces I wanted to pit fire before I could further prepare them. I set myself up at a wheel. I tried a new wheel this time since most of them were free, and lo, the one I used was completely silent! Halleluiah! Plus, the foot pedal was smooth, so I didn't have to use my hand on the manual speed control.
Trimming was pretty easy to do. I had created three round forms last time I was in class, and they were all really round, so it was easy to center them again and trim the bottoms. I picked the best two of the three forms and set them in the warm kiln to dry a bit more.
Then I set out to trim some of my other pieces. I had lots of pieces at this stage actually, I think 7 total. I started trimming my square bowl. I set it down on the wheel upside down and just stared at it for a while. How does one trim something that's not round? Plus the base was all squooshed from when I had to yank it off the wheel when I made it. After a couple tips from a neighbor, I tried to just ignore the whole square part and just focus on the wonky round part at the very bottom (now top). I had to treat my arm as a lathe, by trying to keep it still out in space and just trimming the outer most stuff off first. I had a good inch or so of junk to take off, since part of the wonkiness was caused by a large indent I had made with my thumb when yanking it off the wheel. I had to trim all the way in to the bottom of that indent.
About half way through, I took a break to start preparing my pit fire pieces. So, what I had to do was "burnish" the pieces. You brush terra sigillata onto the piece, let it sit for a moment to dry, then you rub it in. You can use a variety of tools to rub it in, but apparently the most popular in my class was a crumpled up plastic bag. So you rub it in all over, and then do it again. Each layer takes about 10 minutes to coat, dry, and rub, and we were recommended to do 6 layers or more. Some people did 10 or 15 layers. The more layers, the shinier your piece gets until finally some people's pieces looked like polished marble. It was amazing. My pieces developed a smooth luster, but didn't get shiny since I had to keep going back to the wheel and trimming another piece.
For the rest of the night, I alternated with trimming a piece and then doing another layer of terra sig. I eventually trimmed my square bowl down to a nice foot. Hurrah! I wasn't sure that was going to make it. When I finished I did notice that the bottom got pretty thin, I'm lucky I stopped when I did and didn't trim through the bottom.
I also trimmed my weird piece that collapsed when I was trying to make a round form. It got a couple of appreciative comments from people, so I'm glad I kept it. It really does look strange.
I also trimmed my one tall piece (I didn't do the two layers like we were shown, but even with the one layer it got taller than anything else I've thrown). That was pretty easy to trim since it had dried out a bit. If it was wetter I was worried the height would be a problem, maybe causing it to collapse on itself.
Finally, I trimmed a little piece I threw I think the first day and never went back to. I was going to make a little pot with lid, but I never made a lid, and it was too late now. So I trimmed off the lip I had made for the lid to turn it just into a little bowl/cup thing (something to put random little stuff in!).
The last half hour I spend frantically cleaning my wheel and getting as many more layers on my pit fire pieces as I could. I think I ended up with about 6 layers on each piece, which isn't too shabby.
Next time (not next week, due to Thanksgiving) we will glaze all remaining items, and also bring stuff to wrap our pit fire pieces in. Gary suggested experimenting by bringing anything in that burns. Seaweed (the salt is especially good), sticks of lavender, pine cones, grass, weeds, whatever. Also copper wire, if anyone has any. I guess that will leave nice lines of green on the piece. Exciting! I'm going to have to go collecting.
j's third open lab
Ok, I showed up around 7pm... still can't find any finished fired pieces. It's so strange that everything is missing. I hope nothing went wrong with the cone10 firing.
I went ahead and kneaded 2 balls and sat down to do more of the same at the wheel. I managed 3 more little cups (total of 6 now), and then made 2 small sake pitcher kind of vessels. It was the first time I've EVER made a collared vessel with a neck much smaller than the rest. The first one surprised me when it looked correct! It's pretty exciting that I was able to make them!
That was about all I had time for this open lab. Technically the 19th was the last day to "start" wet clay pieces.... so I guess that's it for all the pieces I get to work with. If I'm lucky tho, I might be able to work a little on the wheel on Saturday class.... Zach has said that he wouldn't stop us if we wanted to keep working on new stuff, and anything we don't completely finish this class we can take home and finish in another ceramics class.
I went ahead and kneaded 2 balls and sat down to do more of the same at the wheel. I managed 3 more little cups (total of 6 now), and then made 2 small sake pitcher kind of vessels. It was the first time I've EVER made a collared vessel with a neck much smaller than the rest. The first one surprised me when it looked correct! It's pretty exciting that I was able to make them!
That was about all I had time for this open lab. Technically the 19th was the last day to "start" wet clay pieces.... so I guess that's it for all the pieces I get to work with. If I'm lucky tho, I might be able to work a little on the wheel on Saturday class.... Zach has said that he wouldn't stop us if we wanted to keep working on new stuff, and anything we don't completely finish this class we can take home and finish in another ceramics class.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
j's second open lab
There is a notice on the chalk board in the ceramic's lab that the last day to begin wet-clay projects is this Friday, Nov 16. This shocked me into taking as much advantage of the open labs as I could. I'm not done making stuff yet!!
I went to Tuesday open lab from 6-8:30pm and worked on kneading balls of reclaimed Mac10 clay that I have been keeping. I made 3 balls and sat down at a wheel.
I went ahead and centered, but then worked off the hump to do basically hana's group project from her class. I was making little sake cups. It's kinda rough working that small, and way too easy to initially open the form too hard and immediately make the rim too small. It took some control, but I got 3 small cups out of my efforts. Ball #2 was refusing to center for me even to the point that I could work off the hump, so I scrapped that attempt (I'm blaming not-enough kneading).
The other things I attempted were the components to a clay goblet. A small one mind you, but I was able to successfully form a conic "stem" form, and nice little cup shape that I'll try attaching to one another. I'm seeing if I can make a little chalice or whatever.
I also attempted a small sake pitcher dealie bob, but things weren't working out so well in that attempt, so I abandoned it. That was about all the time I had before needing to clean up the wheel. 2.5 hours isn't long enough for a pottery class IMHO.
I'm probably going to also attend the next open lab to continue my attemps at these 2 projects.
I went to Tuesday open lab from 6-8:30pm and worked on kneading balls of reclaimed Mac10 clay that I have been keeping. I made 3 balls and sat down at a wheel.
I went ahead and centered, but then worked off the hump to do basically hana's group project from her class. I was making little sake cups. It's kinda rough working that small, and way too easy to initially open the form too hard and immediately make the rim too small. It took some control, but I got 3 small cups out of my efforts. Ball #2 was refusing to center for me even to the point that I could work off the hump, so I scrapped that attempt (I'm blaming not-enough kneading).
The other things I attempted were the components to a clay goblet. A small one mind you, but I was able to successfully form a conic "stem" form, and nice little cup shape that I'll try attaching to one another. I'm seeing if I can make a little chalice or whatever.
I also attempted a small sake pitcher dealie bob, but things weren't working out so well in that attempt, so I abandoned it. That was about all the time I had before needing to clean up the wheel. 2.5 hours isn't long enough for a pottery class IMHO.
I'm probably going to also attend the next open lab to continue my attemps at these 2 projects.
Monday, November 12, 2007
j's 7th class (handles and glazing)
I showed up about 45 minutes late again, with coffee.
I initially found my 5 pieces in the glaze room and continued glazing them. I believe I glazed all of them and put them on the reduction cart. The cart was empty, but the pieces that were on there before weren't out on the shelves yet, my only guess is that they are in the kiln cooling down still.
none of the things I had placed on the bisque cart on thursday were done yet (altho also missing). Probably likewise stuck in a cooling down kiln.
I went ahead and finished attaching the feet on my second tray-box thing. They both came out well. I spent some time cleaning up their edges, and then I painted green engobe on the inside, and left it out on the shelf to dry out.
Finally I spend a long time trimming the 3 cups (2 with newly reattached bottoms) I had left. I'm pretty happy how they all came out. Then I went ahead and put their handles on. They are now loosely wrapped in plastic back on the shelves drying out slowly. By this time it was once again very near 3:30pm, and I was the last one in the studio besides zach. I cleaned up my wheel and table, and helped him put all the chairs up. That was about it.
There was a notice on the chalk board that the final bisque firing of the semester was happening on Nov 26. With no class on the 24th, that gives me 2 weeks to finish any other piece I want to work on before the class is over. I'll have to take advantage of any open lab I can make I suppose if there is a couple other things I want to make... huh.
So, yeah, no finished pieces yet, and um, alot in progress I suppose.
I initially found my 5 pieces in the glaze room and continued glazing them. I believe I glazed all of them and put them on the reduction cart. The cart was empty, but the pieces that were on there before weren't out on the shelves yet, my only guess is that they are in the kiln cooling down still.
none of the things I had placed on the bisque cart on thursday were done yet (altho also missing). Probably likewise stuck in a cooling down kiln.
I went ahead and finished attaching the feet on my second tray-box thing. They both came out well. I spent some time cleaning up their edges, and then I painted green engobe on the inside, and left it out on the shelf to dry out.
Finally I spend a long time trimming the 3 cups (2 with newly reattached bottoms) I had left. I'm pretty happy how they all came out. Then I went ahead and put their handles on. They are now loosely wrapped in plastic back on the shelves drying out slowly. By this time it was once again very near 3:30pm, and I was the last one in the studio besides zach. I cleaned up my wheel and table, and helped him put all the chairs up. That was about it.
There was a notice on the chalk board that the final bisque firing of the semester was happening on Nov 26. With no class on the 24th, that gives me 2 weeks to finish any other piece I want to work on before the class is over. I'll have to take advantage of any open lab I can make I suppose if there is a couple other things I want to make... huh.
So, yeah, no finished pieces yet, and um, alot in progress I suppose.
Friday, November 9, 2007
j's first open lab!
ok, while hana was skipping class, I went to a 2.5 hour open lab.
Lessee... I showed up, moved my bone-dry finished pieces to the bisque cart, and rolled out 2 large slabs of DWS (hand building) clay. The fellow openlab mates did not like my method of making slabs though. I've decided that the slab-roller slabs aren't really as ready-to-go as hand-made ones. I believe if you take the time to make a proper slab by hand, it's less likely to shrink in a weird, unexpected way. Anyway, "my way" involves slapping the clay alot by hand, and it's kinda distracting I suppose if the radio is cutting out for 30 seconds at a time due to bad transmission, and ofcourse no one else is talking, so it was uncomfortably quiet besides my hands slapping on my clay. :P
I also found the 5 pieces already bisque fired.
I began the class letting the slab harden up, and going into the glaze room and considering the 5 pieces newly bisqued. I went ahead and used a stain wash on the mouse I had carved out of my cat mug. After washing off the extra stain with water, I decided it'd take longer than I had remaining in open lab that night to dry out for glazing. In the mean time I went ahead and glazed a bowl in teadust glaze, a cup in 2nd cousin celadon, and a 1st coat of many of a bowl in shino glossy. I need to do more to these pieces before they will be ready to fire again tho. Next class I'll get to them.
Back in the main room, I went ahead and began hand-building 2 box-like trays w/ 2" walls. I was able to put together all of them besides the feet on the second tray. I wrapped the entire thing in plastic and sprayed it w/ water before leaving. I think its a good start for some additional good pieces.
I didn't approach the wheel cause I didn't want to spend the time cleaning the wheel.
Anyway, I think I made some good progress during this open lab. Only a couple more classes left!!! gah!
Lessee... I showed up, moved my bone-dry finished pieces to the bisque cart, and rolled out 2 large slabs of DWS (hand building) clay. The fellow openlab mates did not like my method of making slabs though. I've decided that the slab-roller slabs aren't really as ready-to-go as hand-made ones. I believe if you take the time to make a proper slab by hand, it's less likely to shrink in a weird, unexpected way. Anyway, "my way" involves slapping the clay alot by hand, and it's kinda distracting I suppose if the radio is cutting out for 30 seconds at a time due to bad transmission, and ofcourse no one else is talking, so it was uncomfortably quiet besides my hands slapping on my clay. :P
I also found the 5 pieces already bisque fired.
I began the class letting the slab harden up, and going into the glaze room and considering the 5 pieces newly bisqued. I went ahead and used a stain wash on the mouse I had carved out of my cat mug. After washing off the extra stain with water, I decided it'd take longer than I had remaining in open lab that night to dry out for glazing. In the mean time I went ahead and glazed a bowl in teadust glaze, a cup in 2nd cousin celadon, and a 1st coat of many of a bowl in shino glossy. I need to do more to these pieces before they will be ready to fire again tho. Next class I'll get to them.
Back in the main room, I went ahead and began hand-building 2 box-like trays w/ 2" walls. I was able to put together all of them besides the feet on the second tray. I wrapped the entire thing in plastic and sprayed it w/ water before leaving. I think its a good start for some additional good pieces.
I didn't approach the wheel cause I didn't want to spend the time cleaning the wheel.
Anyway, I think I made some good progress during this open lab. Only a couple more classes left!!! gah!
Hana's seventh class
I was naughty, and skipped class this time. Honestly, I just wasn't up to it after having cramps and a mild headache and a bit of advil-induced grogginess. For example, I went to feed the cat, and I poured his kibble right into his water dish. I didn't notice until I heard the sploosh sound instead of the tinkle sound of dry kibble hitting the plate. After that, I didn't really want to expose my pottery to myself. I had been planning on doing a bunch of trimming, and I didn't want to break my pots. So that's that. Sadly, I still have a bit of a headache this morning. Oh well.
Monday, November 5, 2007
j's 6th class (pinching and whatnot)
Let's see, it was a couple days ago so I'll have to remember specifically what happened...
I believe I showed up about 30 minutes late this time, with coffee ofcourse. There was 1 other classmate there setting up, so no worries. I found Zach and asked him if he had any cardboard I could use. After scrounging around a bit, I scored a box the clay comes in. It was perfect. He asked me what I was going to use it for, and I told him for a template. I also asked Zach about attaching bottoms to things I've thrown on a wheel and then cut through. He suggested I continually spray the cylinders with water and cover with plastic to rehydrate, and also roll out the slab of Mac10 (throwing) clay to slowly dry out. The idea is to attach them when they approach the same level of hydration and hardness. I rolled out a slab. Then he watched me curiously as I cut out a horseshoe shaped template from the cardboard, and rolled a slab out with the DWS (hand building) clay.
After I was done with that, I went to the wheel with my "nice" cylinder that I didn't have time to trim last class, and sat there for a long while working on it. It had dried out a touch too much for the trimming to be easy, plus I had thrown and wired it off of the hump, and the wire tool had done some funky things to the bottom that I was trying to level out. After a long stuggle against the slightly too dry clay, Zach suggested I try spraying it with water as I trim. I started trying that, and by gum it worked like a charm. huh. I trimmed the cylinder to my satisfaction. Then I rolled out a rope of some Mac10 clay to harden up a bit for a handle for this cup before shaping and attaching later and sprayed and wrapped the trimmed cylinder for attach.
After this, I asked Zach about the correct technique for pinch pots. He seemed surprised, but I told him I'd never done a pinch pot before, so he happily got a lump of clay, sat across the table from me, and showed me how to pinch a small pot while I worked on making a couple things out of my DWS slab. He seemed totally amused that I showed up with an agenda of things to make. It was a short list, but I was determined. He even seemed surprised what I used the template for (I won't say here cause it is something for Hana and I'd like to keep up the appearance of surprise).
Finally I was able to get to the pinch pot, and I sat there pinching away. It's more delicate a process than I thought it would be. It's really easy to pinch too hard and make a section too thin, and there is no way to get the volume back in that area. I happily pinched out 2 little pots that nest one inside the other, and the inside pot with a little grip tab. See, I was making a place to put used tea bags! I asked Zach how to punch out holes, and that I've never done that before, and he laughed and said it seemed I was doing a lot of "firsts" today. He didn't even hesitate, and went to get his little hole punchers from his bucket of tools, told me I could use whichever I wanted.
Now, I just happened to remember when my needle tool broke earlier this semester, and he was REALLY reluctant to let me borrow a tool from him for the class period, I thought that was a funny turn around for him. I guess he had to get to know me a bit better before he trusted me with his tools.
Anyway, I finished that project and was able to attach the new bottoms to those 2 cylinders, and the handle to that one. Zach suggested I loosely wrap the handle in plastic so it dries a bit slower than the rest of the clay in the cup since it was a little thinner. Also he had me place the two new re-attached bottom cups upside down on the wheel and apply pressure via a rib to the bottom to help the attach of the slabs (he sat on the wheel next to me and worked on the same piece I was working on, it was kinda cool). After all this, Zach looked at me expectantly and asked, "what next?"
It was funny. I think he was disappointed that I didn't have any specific projects after all this. I put the new bottomed cylinders wrapped in plastic on the shelf to trim during the next class, and everything else on the shelf to dry out for bisque firing.
Following this (since I had about an hour before needing to clean up) I went ahead and kneaded out 3 balls for throwing. The first attempt was a BEAUTIFUL cylinder. The second was a sad melting effect that I ended up reclaiming after there was a bad result following trying to trim the rim to make it even. I was running out of time, so I decided to bag the third ball and start cleaning up. Around this time I noticed I was the last person left in the room. Some other students had come in for the open lab, but had finished and already left, I think this was around 3:20pm. Open lab goes until 4pm. I mentioned, "wait, am I the last one here?!?" and Zach replied "yes." in a mock-unhappy tone. It was funny.
Anyway, I cleaned up, and called it a day. Oh, by the way, I had moved the 5 pieces to the bisque cart first thing when I got there... the ones with handles.
I believe I showed up about 30 minutes late this time, with coffee ofcourse. There was 1 other classmate there setting up, so no worries. I found Zach and asked him if he had any cardboard I could use. After scrounging around a bit, I scored a box the clay comes in. It was perfect. He asked me what I was going to use it for, and I told him for a template. I also asked Zach about attaching bottoms to things I've thrown on a wheel and then cut through. He suggested I continually spray the cylinders with water and cover with plastic to rehydrate, and also roll out the slab of Mac10 (throwing) clay to slowly dry out. The idea is to attach them when they approach the same level of hydration and hardness. I rolled out a slab. Then he watched me curiously as I cut out a horseshoe shaped template from the cardboard, and rolled a slab out with the DWS (hand building) clay.
After I was done with that, I went to the wheel with my "nice" cylinder that I didn't have time to trim last class, and sat there for a long while working on it. It had dried out a touch too much for the trimming to be easy, plus I had thrown and wired it off of the hump, and the wire tool had done some funky things to the bottom that I was trying to level out. After a long stuggle against the slightly too dry clay, Zach suggested I try spraying it with water as I trim. I started trying that, and by gum it worked like a charm. huh. I trimmed the cylinder to my satisfaction. Then I rolled out a rope of some Mac10 clay to harden up a bit for a handle for this cup before shaping and attaching later and sprayed and wrapped the trimmed cylinder for attach.
After this, I asked Zach about the correct technique for pinch pots. He seemed surprised, but I told him I'd never done a pinch pot before, so he happily got a lump of clay, sat across the table from me, and showed me how to pinch a small pot while I worked on making a couple things out of my DWS slab. He seemed totally amused that I showed up with an agenda of things to make. It was a short list, but I was determined. He even seemed surprised what I used the template for (I won't say here cause it is something for Hana and I'd like to keep up the appearance of surprise).
Finally I was able to get to the pinch pot, and I sat there pinching away. It's more delicate a process than I thought it would be. It's really easy to pinch too hard and make a section too thin, and there is no way to get the volume back in that area. I happily pinched out 2 little pots that nest one inside the other, and the inside pot with a little grip tab. See, I was making a place to put used tea bags! I asked Zach how to punch out holes, and that I've never done that before, and he laughed and said it seemed I was doing a lot of "firsts" today. He didn't even hesitate, and went to get his little hole punchers from his bucket of tools, told me I could use whichever I wanted.
Now, I just happened to remember when my needle tool broke earlier this semester, and he was REALLY reluctant to let me borrow a tool from him for the class period, I thought that was a funny turn around for him. I guess he had to get to know me a bit better before he trusted me with his tools.
Anyway, I finished that project and was able to attach the new bottoms to those 2 cylinders, and the handle to that one. Zach suggested I loosely wrap the handle in plastic so it dries a bit slower than the rest of the clay in the cup since it was a little thinner. Also he had me place the two new re-attached bottom cups upside down on the wheel and apply pressure via a rib to the bottom to help the attach of the slabs (he sat on the wheel next to me and worked on the same piece I was working on, it was kinda cool). After all this, Zach looked at me expectantly and asked, "what next?"
It was funny. I think he was disappointed that I didn't have any specific projects after all this. I put the new bottomed cylinders wrapped in plastic on the shelf to trim during the next class, and everything else on the shelf to dry out for bisque firing.
Following this (since I had about an hour before needing to clean up) I went ahead and kneaded out 3 balls for throwing. The first attempt was a BEAUTIFUL cylinder. The second was a sad melting effect that I ended up reclaiming after there was a bad result following trying to trim the rim to make it even. I was running out of time, so I decided to bag the third ball and start cleaning up. Around this time I noticed I was the last person left in the room. Some other students had come in for the open lab, but had finished and already left, I think this was around 3:20pm. Open lab goes until 4pm. I mentioned, "wait, am I the last one here?!?" and Zach replied "yes." in a mock-unhappy tone. It was funny.
Anyway, I cleaned up, and called it a day. Oh, by the way, I had moved the 5 pieces to the bisque cart first thing when I got there... the ones with handles.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
hana's sixth (!) class
Today's class was absolutely awesome. It was the best, most productive class of possibly my entire career as a potter hobbiest.
I took today off work for "mental health" (ie, not sick but pretty low energy). I went for a run/walk (way more walking than I had hoped), and by the end of the day was feeling slightly better.
Last Saturday I went to a pottery store, the first one I've ever been to actually. It was amazing, and I bought two 25lb bags of clay, one brown and one red. I took the brown one in to class, and it's a beauty to work with. It's a little soft, so it took a bit to realize I had to be quite a bit gentler with it than my other clay, especially after considering last week's wrestling match. Once I got to know it a little though, I could make almost anything.
I started throwing as soon as I got to class, and managed to throw quite a large bowl while everyone else was settling in and Gary started discussing what our schedule will be like for the rest of the quarter. We're going to go to his house and do a pit fire on the last class! That should be fun. The large bowl kept my hands occupied as I listened. When I was ready to take it off the wheel, it really didn't want to come off, and finally I got frustrated and just yanked it off, pretty badly morphing it in the process. Oh well, I just set it aside for now.
Gary was then giving a demo on how to throw round pots (as in nearly spherical, not just cylinders). These are the pots it's best to put in a pit fire. I've thrown pretty round before, so the demo wasn't too enlightening, but I did learn some good tips. It's good to keep reminding your clay that you intend to go round as opposed to out for a bowl, so there were several times where he'd choke the top to get it back in line. He also showed how to push your outside thumb into the clay at the very bottom and then raise your thumb to force a wave of clay up the pot. If you do it right, the wave travels all the way up and becomes the new rim. If you do it wrong, the wave gets to the top and comes off in one separate ring. That kept happening to me. Annoying.
Anyway, I totally messed up the first sphere I attempted. I got it to a cylinder but as I began stretching out the walls, I guess I went too far, and it basically collapsed on itself. Gary walked by just then and said, "Wow! You should keep that! It's totally George Ohr!" I was all, "uh?" and he told me to look him up. I haven't found a lot of images in the Web yet, but I intend to do a little further research. I have to admit the piece does look kind of cool.
I then threw three increasingly successful spheres. I was happy with them. Then I cleaned up my wheel and brought everything to my table. I looked at the messed up bowl, and decided to play with it a little... and was able to pinch it into a decent square bowl! Whoa! It's pretty cool actually if it comes out. I still need to trim it and all, so we'll see.
Then I went about trying to find places to put everything on the shelves and put my name on them so I don't lose them. I still haven't glazed anything. Sigh.
I took today off work for "mental health" (ie, not sick but pretty low energy). I went for a run/walk (way more walking than I had hoped), and by the end of the day was feeling slightly better.
Last Saturday I went to a pottery store, the first one I've ever been to actually. It was amazing, and I bought two 25lb bags of clay, one brown and one red. I took the brown one in to class, and it's a beauty to work with. It's a little soft, so it took a bit to realize I had to be quite a bit gentler with it than my other clay, especially after considering last week's wrestling match. Once I got to know it a little though, I could make almost anything.
I started throwing as soon as I got to class, and managed to throw quite a large bowl while everyone else was settling in and Gary started discussing what our schedule will be like for the rest of the quarter. We're going to go to his house and do a pit fire on the last class! That should be fun. The large bowl kept my hands occupied as I listened. When I was ready to take it off the wheel, it really didn't want to come off, and finally I got frustrated and just yanked it off, pretty badly morphing it in the process. Oh well, I just set it aside for now.
Gary was then giving a demo on how to throw round pots (as in nearly spherical, not just cylinders). These are the pots it's best to put in a pit fire. I've thrown pretty round before, so the demo wasn't too enlightening, but I did learn some good tips. It's good to keep reminding your clay that you intend to go round as opposed to out for a bowl, so there were several times where he'd choke the top to get it back in line. He also showed how to push your outside thumb into the clay at the very bottom and then raise your thumb to force a wave of clay up the pot. If you do it right, the wave travels all the way up and becomes the new rim. If you do it wrong, the wave gets to the top and comes off in one separate ring. That kept happening to me. Annoying.
Anyway, I totally messed up the first sphere I attempted. I got it to a cylinder but as I began stretching out the walls, I guess I went too far, and it basically collapsed on itself. Gary walked by just then and said, "Wow! You should keep that! It's totally George Ohr!" I was all, "uh?" and he told me to look him up. I haven't found a lot of images in the Web yet, but I intend to do a little further research. I have to admit the piece does look kind of cool.
I then threw three increasingly successful spheres. I was happy with them. Then I cleaned up my wheel and brought everything to my table. I looked at the messed up bowl, and decided to play with it a little... and was able to pinch it into a decent square bowl! Whoa! It's pretty cool actually if it comes out. I still need to trim it and all, so we'll see.
Then I went about trying to find places to put everything on the shelves and put my name on them so I don't lose them. I still haven't glazed anything. Sigh.
Monday, October 29, 2007
j's 5th class (The Thriller, and a lot of trimming)
I slept in. no big surprise there. I headed into class about an hour late, coffee in hand.
I walked in the door and there were about 4 classmates present, and a lady (named Roxanne?) at the front. She was a substitute teacher for Zach for the day. I apologized for being so late, and she laughed when I went to one of the unused canvas topped tables to claim as my work space that no other class she has been in or taught did the students have the luxury of a whole table to each. I know it's pretty fricken cool actually.
Roxanne was going on and on about the Thriller (you know, originally by M.J.). She had read in the Mercury that at the Crystal Ballroom they were having a session where they were teaching anyone interested the dance moves to The Thriller, and then at a certain time, they were going to dance to it... at the same time as groups all over the country also dancing to The Thriller with the same dance.... they were going for a world record in most people involved in a synchronized dance or something. Roxanne was particularly interested cause apparently she was in a dance troupe that used some of the moves in The Thriller, so she thought it was funny.
I then mentioned to her the YouTube film of the Phillipine prisoners doing The Thriller. She immediately jumped online and found it... and played it over and over for anyone who would watch. I was chuckling everytime I heard it again. It was great.
Nothing new fired for me today. All the glazed pieces still on their shelves waiting a reduction firing. Nothing new bisque fired. I had nothing left to do but attend to the 8 or so forms left that I threw 2 weeks ago.
I set myself up at a wheel, and carefully examined each cup and bowl before putting it upside down and centering it for trimming. I was determined not to trim through a piece again. Ugh that felt terrible. It took me a couple hours, but I was able to trim 2 cups and 3 bowls successfully, and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. I cleaned up the wheel, and then discovered the 1 cup I threw last week that I didn't trim! Oops. I didnt' feel like messying up the wheel again, so I sprayed the cup with water, and rewrapped it in plastic to put on the shelf till next time.
Before going to the wheel originally, I actually rolled out a number of clay ropes on the table... I was going to attempt handles one of the ways Zach had shown me. Now that the pieces were trimmed, I was going to shape them and attach. I like being able to hand build the handles instead of pulling. I was able to custom-make the handle exactly how I thought it should look for the piece. It was nice. I put handles on the cups, and 2 handles each on either side of the bowls. I'm really happy with how they turned out. One of the rims of one of the not-very-good bowls chipped and cracked while I was trimming, so I had to repair it with slick. I'm hoping the patch job works.
After this, I pulled some white and brown engobe out, and started decorating the pieces. The squatter mug I decided would make a good "cat mug" which my brother requested for christmas.
See, his cat drinks from a mug, but it's a less than ideal drinking vessel since Buzz (the cat) can't get his head in very far, and they inevitably end up dumping out and refilling the mug more often than they'd like. They wanted a squat "mug" for Buzz's use. The specifications were: not easily tipped over, light color glaze on the inside so Buzz could see the water line, and a handle (to keep up the pretense of a mug).
I covered the chosen mug with white engobe, and then scratched out the design of a mouse on the outside of the vessel. It's derned cute. I'm pretty happy.
I decorated the various "hearty soup bowls" with brown engobe, and then put them all on their ware board to dry out. REALLY HOPING THAT ONE BOWL DOESN'T CRACK AGAIN!!
This, unfortunately was about all the time I had, as when I was finishing up it was around 3:15pm, and Roxanne told us she was closing the ceramics lab at 3:30pm.
So, about 4 solid hours of trimming and finishing up 5 pieces. I'll move them to the bisque cart next time I see them (when they are bone dry).
I didn't quite make it to open lab this last week... um, Gilmore Girls got in the way of that. But perhaps this week I'll make it out? It'd be nice to start a couple new pieces now that all I have left in the shelves needing attention are 2 cylinders I've cut through the bottoms of when getting them off of their bats (was thinking about attaching a slab to the bottoms and trying to save them as viable pieces), and 1 nice looking mug-sized cylinder needing trimming and a handle.
I walked in the door and there were about 4 classmates present, and a lady (named Roxanne?) at the front. She was a substitute teacher for Zach for the day. I apologized for being so late, and she laughed when I went to one of the unused canvas topped tables to claim as my work space that no other class she has been in or taught did the students have the luxury of a whole table to each. I know it's pretty fricken cool actually.
Roxanne was going on and on about the Thriller (you know, originally by M.J.). She had read in the Mercury that at the Crystal Ballroom they were having a session where they were teaching anyone interested the dance moves to The Thriller, and then at a certain time, they were going to dance to it... at the same time as groups all over the country also dancing to The Thriller with the same dance.... they were going for a world record in most people involved in a synchronized dance or something. Roxanne was particularly interested cause apparently she was in a dance troupe that used some of the moves in The Thriller, so she thought it was funny.
I then mentioned to her the YouTube film of the Phillipine prisoners doing The Thriller. She immediately jumped online and found it... and played it over and over for anyone who would watch. I was chuckling everytime I heard it again. It was great.
Nothing new fired for me today. All the glazed pieces still on their shelves waiting a reduction firing. Nothing new bisque fired. I had nothing left to do but attend to the 8 or so forms left that I threw 2 weeks ago.
I set myself up at a wheel, and carefully examined each cup and bowl before putting it upside down and centering it for trimming. I was determined not to trim through a piece again. Ugh that felt terrible. It took me a couple hours, but I was able to trim 2 cups and 3 bowls successfully, and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. I cleaned up the wheel, and then discovered the 1 cup I threw last week that I didn't trim! Oops. I didnt' feel like messying up the wheel again, so I sprayed the cup with water, and rewrapped it in plastic to put on the shelf till next time.
Before going to the wheel originally, I actually rolled out a number of clay ropes on the table... I was going to attempt handles one of the ways Zach had shown me. Now that the pieces were trimmed, I was going to shape them and attach. I like being able to hand build the handles instead of pulling. I was able to custom-make the handle exactly how I thought it should look for the piece. It was nice. I put handles on the cups, and 2 handles each on either side of the bowls. I'm really happy with how they turned out. One of the rims of one of the not-very-good bowls chipped and cracked while I was trimming, so I had to repair it with slick. I'm hoping the patch job works.
After this, I pulled some white and brown engobe out, and started decorating the pieces. The squatter mug I decided would make a good "cat mug" which my brother requested for christmas.
See, his cat drinks from a mug, but it's a less than ideal drinking vessel since Buzz (the cat) can't get his head in very far, and they inevitably end up dumping out and refilling the mug more often than they'd like. They wanted a squat "mug" for Buzz's use. The specifications were: not easily tipped over, light color glaze on the inside so Buzz could see the water line, and a handle (to keep up the pretense of a mug).
I covered the chosen mug with white engobe, and then scratched out the design of a mouse on the outside of the vessel. It's derned cute. I'm pretty happy.
I decorated the various "hearty soup bowls" with brown engobe, and then put them all on their ware board to dry out. REALLY HOPING THAT ONE BOWL DOESN'T CRACK AGAIN!!
This, unfortunately was about all the time I had, as when I was finishing up it was around 3:15pm, and Roxanne told us she was closing the ceramics lab at 3:30pm.
So, about 4 solid hours of trimming and finishing up 5 pieces. I'll move them to the bisque cart next time I see them (when they are bone dry).
I didn't quite make it to open lab this last week... um, Gilmore Girls got in the way of that. But perhaps this week I'll make it out? It'd be nice to start a couple new pieces now that all I have left in the shelves needing attention are 2 cylinders I've cut through the bottoms of when getting them off of their bats (was thinking about attaching a slab to the bottoms and trying to save them as viable pieces), and 1 nice looking mug-sized cylinder needing trimming and a handle.
Friday, October 26, 2007
hana's fifth class
After eating a very garlicky piece of pizza for dinner at the cafeteria where I work, I drove down to pottery class feeling like I could knock someone down just by saying hi to them. Remind me to keep a tin of mints in my car from now on.
Class started off badly. I spent the first ten minutes rummaging around in the clay closet looking for my clay. There are four shelves, and they were all packed with other people's clay, so I must have moved about a hundred pounds of clay (not all at once, luckily) looking for mine, and I never found it. Did I finish my bag at the last class two weeks ago? Maybe so.
Turns out there is a bunch of free clay for students, various scraps left behind by former students. I grabbed a bag containing about ten pounds of clay, but it was in pretty bad shape. It seemed to be a mixture of a couple different kinds, and it was a bit dried out. But, it's all I had, so I decided to try it out.
First Gary gave a demo on how to throw tall pots. You first need to center about five pounds of clay, and it's better if it's a bit of a dryer kind of clay, not as stretchy. He got out a bat first, and attached it to the wheel using a pancake of clay (no pegs in this class). Then he pulled a narrow cylinder, just about as wide as his arm, and about a foot tall. He used the stick tool (instead of a rib, since it's much longer) to help keep the walls straight. He said the rim needed to be about as thick as the rest of the wall, since that was only going to be roughly the half way point of the whole pot! Then he used a rib to make the rim a 45 degree angle sloping inward. Using calipers, he measured the width of the rim. After trimming the bottom slightly, he removed the bat from the wheel using the wire tool and set it aside.
Using another bat, he then centered and threw a 3.5 pound ball of clay. He opened it all the way to the bat, saying that the bottom of this one was actually going to be the top of the entire piece. Apparently for the seam to match the best, the two meeting pieces should be at the same place of the throw. So the top of this second piece will be meeting with the top of the first piece, making the seam in the middle of the finished piece.
He pulled another good 10 inches of pot, and measured the rim using the calipers until it was the correct size. He then used the rib to make the rim at another 45 degree angle, sloping to the outside. He cleaned off the bottom a bit, and removed the bat. He placed the two piece to the side to dry a bit.
A couple hours later, he brought the two pieces back to the wheel. He recentered the first piece (still on its bat) on the wheel. Eliciting gasps from the students, he inverted the second piece (which miraculously stayed attached to the bat) and matched the two rims to each other. I couldn't believe it worked. He used an exacto knife and then the wire tool to remove the bat from the top, and voila, one extremely tall piece. He continued to work it for a while, sticking his whole arm in it and smoothing the seam on the inside and outside, and smoothing the piece as a whole. At one point he amusingly said, "it's like birthing a calf! You just get your arm wet and stick it in there!" and we're all like, uhhhh. yeah.
So then I went ahead and tried to center five pounds of my used clay. Man, was that frustrating. I was trying to wedge it on the wheel, but it was so stiff I couldn't get it to work. I spent about half an hour working on this thing: pushing, wetting, trying to raise it into a column, trying to push it back down, and it just kept getting really lumpy. I was wrestling it, and losing. Finally, after failing to center it and losing about 3 pounds of clay in scraps in the process, I gave up, scraped the whole thing off, and set it on the plaster in the other room to dry off a bit so I could start over. I felt like leaving class, I was so frustrated.
The second time I tried was with a slightly better piece of clay, and I was finally able to center it. I decided not to be a perfectionist and just try it. I opened it but it felt a little wonky. It was still very stiff and I think I opened it starting too tall, so I had to go really far down on the initial opening. It also wasn't perfectly centered, so I had to put up with a bit of a beat in it.
I managed to pull about a ten inch piece. I was sitting there looking at it with dissatisfaction when Gary stopped by. We both looked at it for a moment. Finally I said, it's too fat. Gary said, I was just going to say that it's not fat enough. Then we both said, it's both! It needs to be fatter and skinnier. So I opened the middle third more so it has a nice belly, and choked it a bit at the neck to make it more narrow up top, and then made a nice little flare at the rim. As I kept working, I noticed the bottom was getting slightly twisted, so I knew I couldn't push too much more out of it. After all this work, I really wanted something to keep. So I stopped at an acceptable shape, even though a little more extreme belly and thin neck would have been nice, and took it off the wheel. Ooof, it was heavy! I think my walls were still fairly thick, but that's ok. I had something to show for this extremely difficult night. (I should also note that by this time two women sitting near me were by now also trying to center 5+ pounds of clay. One of the literally screamed in frustration and had to pace around the room for a bit. And she's really talented too, so I felt a little better.)
I still haven't glazed anything, and I now have five things ready for glazing. I did find the glazes at least. I also peeked at our class project: about fifty little cups were trimmed and bisque fired! They were so cute! I recognized a couple that I made, including the wonky pitcher, but since none had signatures I couldn't tell for sure (except for the wonky pitcher, which was obvious). I guess we'll be glazing them next week.
I was exhausted then, and it was time to clean up, and go home. I think I'll need to buy some clay this weekend.
Class started off badly. I spent the first ten minutes rummaging around in the clay closet looking for my clay. There are four shelves, and they were all packed with other people's clay, so I must have moved about a hundred pounds of clay (not all at once, luckily) looking for mine, and I never found it. Did I finish my bag at the last class two weeks ago? Maybe so.
Turns out there is a bunch of free clay for students, various scraps left behind by former students. I grabbed a bag containing about ten pounds of clay, but it was in pretty bad shape. It seemed to be a mixture of a couple different kinds, and it was a bit dried out. But, it's all I had, so I decided to try it out.
First Gary gave a demo on how to throw tall pots. You first need to center about five pounds of clay, and it's better if it's a bit of a dryer kind of clay, not as stretchy. He got out a bat first, and attached it to the wheel using a pancake of clay (no pegs in this class). Then he pulled a narrow cylinder, just about as wide as his arm, and about a foot tall. He used the stick tool (instead of a rib, since it's much longer) to help keep the walls straight. He said the rim needed to be about as thick as the rest of the wall, since that was only going to be roughly the half way point of the whole pot! Then he used a rib to make the rim a 45 degree angle sloping inward. Using calipers, he measured the width of the rim. After trimming the bottom slightly, he removed the bat from the wheel using the wire tool and set it aside.
Using another bat, he then centered and threw a 3.5 pound ball of clay. He opened it all the way to the bat, saying that the bottom of this one was actually going to be the top of the entire piece. Apparently for the seam to match the best, the two meeting pieces should be at the same place of the throw. So the top of this second piece will be meeting with the top of the first piece, making the seam in the middle of the finished piece.
He pulled another good 10 inches of pot, and measured the rim using the calipers until it was the correct size. He then used the rib to make the rim at another 45 degree angle, sloping to the outside. He cleaned off the bottom a bit, and removed the bat. He placed the two piece to the side to dry a bit.
A couple hours later, he brought the two pieces back to the wheel. He recentered the first piece (still on its bat) on the wheel. Eliciting gasps from the students, he inverted the second piece (which miraculously stayed attached to the bat) and matched the two rims to each other. I couldn't believe it worked. He used an exacto knife and then the wire tool to remove the bat from the top, and voila, one extremely tall piece. He continued to work it for a while, sticking his whole arm in it and smoothing the seam on the inside and outside, and smoothing the piece as a whole. At one point he amusingly said, "it's like birthing a calf! You just get your arm wet and stick it in there!" and we're all like, uhhhh. yeah.
So then I went ahead and tried to center five pounds of my used clay. Man, was that frustrating. I was trying to wedge it on the wheel, but it was so stiff I couldn't get it to work. I spent about half an hour working on this thing: pushing, wetting, trying to raise it into a column, trying to push it back down, and it just kept getting really lumpy. I was wrestling it, and losing. Finally, after failing to center it and losing about 3 pounds of clay in scraps in the process, I gave up, scraped the whole thing off, and set it on the plaster in the other room to dry off a bit so I could start over. I felt like leaving class, I was so frustrated.
The second time I tried was with a slightly better piece of clay, and I was finally able to center it. I decided not to be a perfectionist and just try it. I opened it but it felt a little wonky. It was still very stiff and I think I opened it starting too tall, so I had to go really far down on the initial opening. It also wasn't perfectly centered, so I had to put up with a bit of a beat in it.
I managed to pull about a ten inch piece. I was sitting there looking at it with dissatisfaction when Gary stopped by. We both looked at it for a moment. Finally I said, it's too fat. Gary said, I was just going to say that it's not fat enough. Then we both said, it's both! It needs to be fatter and skinnier. So I opened the middle third more so it has a nice belly, and choked it a bit at the neck to make it more narrow up top, and then made a nice little flare at the rim. As I kept working, I noticed the bottom was getting slightly twisted, so I knew I couldn't push too much more out of it. After all this work, I really wanted something to keep. So I stopped at an acceptable shape, even though a little more extreme belly and thin neck would have been nice, and took it off the wheel. Ooof, it was heavy! I think my walls were still fairly thick, but that's ok. I had something to show for this extremely difficult night. (I should also note that by this time two women sitting near me were by now also trying to center 5+ pounds of clay. One of the literally screamed in frustration and had to pace around the room for a bit. And she's really talented too, so I felt a little better.)
I still haven't glazed anything, and I now have five things ready for glazing. I did find the glazes at least. I also peeked at our class project: about fifty little cups were trimmed and bisque fired! They were so cute! I recognized a couple that I made, including the wonky pitcher, but since none had signatures I couldn't tell for sure (except for the wonky pitcher, which was obvious). I guess we'll be glazing them next week.
I was exhausted then, and it was time to clean up, and go home. I think I'll need to buy some clay this weekend.
Monday, October 22, 2007
j's 4th class (disaster and performance art)
well, my fourth class was great.
I showed up maybe 30 minutes late cause I was having trouble getting out of bed AND there was a long line at starbucks. Once I showed up, Zach smiled at me and laughed, saying he JUST finished the glazing demo, and he had just said, "ok, so now someone is going to show up!" and sure enough, cue my entrance.
He asked if I had anything ready to glaze, I told him as a matter of fact I did: 2 bowls, a wonky mug, 4 test tiles, and a tray. He took me on a private tour of the glaze room showing me stuff and answering my specific questions which was nice (I've never worked with washes before, so I though it'd be fun to try out a couple). Then I got my stuff out and started working on glazing, and he just hung out, talking with me about how I could totally mix glazes for this class if I was interested. He seemed particularly interested in the fact that I'd taken 1 low fire class. I guess that's his favored medium, but has been forced to work mostly with high fire since coming to PCC.
After a bit, Zach called me out of the glaze room to give a demo on throwing pitchers, spouts, and plates. It was a FASCINATING demo. I got the urge to throw things on a wheel again from watching him (not that I had stopped wanting to do that, but watching him throw inspires me).
After spending some more time in the glaze room (mostly on my test tiles), I decided to throw on the wheel some. I made 2 larger balls, and was attempting perhaps something larger, but I wasn't working with the tips that Zach taught me last week, and ball #1 was a complete disaster. The form melted infront of my eyes cause I had used too much water or something. Totally sad. Zach claims that "throwing off the hump" is the easiest way to work, so I thought I'd try that with ball #2. Especially since I'd been making my bottoms too thin. I threw a pretty respectable cylinder actually that looks like it'll make a good mug. I'm excited for it. Zach even walked by and commented that it was a great looking cup. Go me!
I went back into the glaze room after this to finish up on the items I'd left out to dry out after cleaning up the wheel. Zach pulled me out of the glaze room again saying I should see this "performance art" piece they had on the projector right then. It turns out the artist of this piece was in the ceramics lab right then working on a large amorphous clay shape that she was meticulously adding clay warts to (took 2 people to lift... roughly the size of a fire hydrant), and had brought this DVD with her. It was... an odd thing.... this performance art piece.
It was a dinner served in 4 or 5 courses featuring pottery as the serving mechanisms. It was kinda bazaar. The room in which this dinner was taking place was all white, and the "dinner guests" were in white paper coverall jumpsuit things with goggles and hair nets. The course being shown when I came in the room was perhaps the appetizer? The table was set up with maybe 50 or so bowls of dipping sauces or thicker hummus-like dips. In the center was a cluster of gourd-like shapes, each with a long (2 foot?) stem sticking out. Each dinner guest had a ceramic oversized pacifier shaped ring that they were using to eat the various dips with. Turns out the stems of the gourds were straws, and the guests were also sipping whatever the contents of that were. It seemed strange, and the dinner guests seemed to be enjoying the experience, even if you could tell they thought it was a little silly at times.
The next course consisted of these inverted tear-shaped pottery pods being suspended by wire from the ceiling over a bed of live wheat grass. There was honey dripping down the wire to the pods, and onto the wheat grass. The dinner guests were licking the pods and eating the grass without using their hands. It seemed like a new party game more than anything else.
The next course was a polenta and broth course. The broth was being served in a pottery container that was maybe 2-3 feet long, and segmented and meandering, like a large grub. It had holes cut out of it's side, and in those holes were baby bottle nipples. The dinner guests were enjoying the broth via suckling this container. Very odd. The polenta was in a molded shape identical to the pottery vessel, and the dinner guests were using cup-like spoons to eat the polenta.
The final course, the dessert course was actually kind of cool. It involved a pottery feeding tube, and dessert pods. The tube was a large 8-10 inch in diameter tube, maybe 1.5 feet long standing on end. It had a number of holes cut out of the side, and a ceramic plunger in the top. The tube was full of chocolate pudding, and when the plunger was pushed down, pudding would be forced out of the cut out holes. The dessert pods were literally these little fist-sized pods with a tiny opening (and pottery cap). They contained a creme broule concoction. The dinner guests had a tiny ceramic spoon they could use to get the contents of the pod out, altho it didn't look like the form (albeit asthetically pleasing) had the most functional design. It was kinda fun watching them squish more pudding out of the feeding tube. That was the end of the DVD.
I finished up what I was working on in the glaze room, and set my items on the cone 10 reduction firing cart. I'm saving the tray to glaze later. I'm not sure how I want to do it yet, and want to see the results of the test tiles before I commit to anything.
Finally, I pulled out all the forms I had thrown last class. I was able to cut the last several off the bats. I put the pieces I wanted to treat seriously on one ware board, and the ones I could use for handle practice on another. I then attempted to trim my 3-point symmetry collapsed bowl.... and trimmed through the bottom. DANGIT! I really liked that piece. Oh well, I sadly submerged it into the clay reclamation sink. I was pretty much out of time by then (pushing 3:30pm), altho I wanted to get further with a number of my pieces, I was forced to wrap them up in plastic and put them back on the shelves.
Maybe I'll try to make the open lab on Thursday evening and get some stuff done.
I showed up maybe 30 minutes late cause I was having trouble getting out of bed AND there was a long line at starbucks. Once I showed up, Zach smiled at me and laughed, saying he JUST finished the glazing demo, and he had just said, "ok, so now someone is going to show up!" and sure enough, cue my entrance.
He asked if I had anything ready to glaze, I told him as a matter of fact I did: 2 bowls, a wonky mug, 4 test tiles, and a tray. He took me on a private tour of the glaze room showing me stuff and answering my specific questions which was nice (I've never worked with washes before, so I though it'd be fun to try out a couple). Then I got my stuff out and started working on glazing, and he just hung out, talking with me about how I could totally mix glazes for this class if I was interested. He seemed particularly interested in the fact that I'd taken 1 low fire class. I guess that's his favored medium, but has been forced to work mostly with high fire since coming to PCC.
After a bit, Zach called me out of the glaze room to give a demo on throwing pitchers, spouts, and plates. It was a FASCINATING demo. I got the urge to throw things on a wheel again from watching him (not that I had stopped wanting to do that, but watching him throw inspires me).
After spending some more time in the glaze room (mostly on my test tiles), I decided to throw on the wheel some. I made 2 larger balls, and was attempting perhaps something larger, but I wasn't working with the tips that Zach taught me last week, and ball #1 was a complete disaster. The form melted infront of my eyes cause I had used too much water or something. Totally sad. Zach claims that "throwing off the hump" is the easiest way to work, so I thought I'd try that with ball #2. Especially since I'd been making my bottoms too thin. I threw a pretty respectable cylinder actually that looks like it'll make a good mug. I'm excited for it. Zach even walked by and commented that it was a great looking cup. Go me!
I went back into the glaze room after this to finish up on the items I'd left out to dry out after cleaning up the wheel. Zach pulled me out of the glaze room again saying I should see this "performance art" piece they had on the projector right then. It turns out the artist of this piece was in the ceramics lab right then working on a large amorphous clay shape that she was meticulously adding clay warts to (took 2 people to lift... roughly the size of a fire hydrant), and had brought this DVD with her. It was... an odd thing.... this performance art piece.
It was a dinner served in 4 or 5 courses featuring pottery as the serving mechanisms. It was kinda bazaar. The room in which this dinner was taking place was all white, and the "dinner guests" were in white paper coverall jumpsuit things with goggles and hair nets. The course being shown when I came in the room was perhaps the appetizer? The table was set up with maybe 50 or so bowls of dipping sauces or thicker hummus-like dips. In the center was a cluster of gourd-like shapes, each with a long (2 foot?) stem sticking out. Each dinner guest had a ceramic oversized pacifier shaped ring that they were using to eat the various dips with. Turns out the stems of the gourds were straws, and the guests were also sipping whatever the contents of that were. It seemed strange, and the dinner guests seemed to be enjoying the experience, even if you could tell they thought it was a little silly at times.
The next course consisted of these inverted tear-shaped pottery pods being suspended by wire from the ceiling over a bed of live wheat grass. There was honey dripping down the wire to the pods, and onto the wheat grass. The dinner guests were licking the pods and eating the grass without using their hands. It seemed like a new party game more than anything else.
The next course was a polenta and broth course. The broth was being served in a pottery container that was maybe 2-3 feet long, and segmented and meandering, like a large grub. It had holes cut out of it's side, and in those holes were baby bottle nipples. The dinner guests were enjoying the broth via suckling this container. Very odd. The polenta was in a molded shape identical to the pottery vessel, and the dinner guests were using cup-like spoons to eat the polenta.
The final course, the dessert course was actually kind of cool. It involved a pottery feeding tube, and dessert pods. The tube was a large 8-10 inch in diameter tube, maybe 1.5 feet long standing on end. It had a number of holes cut out of the side, and a ceramic plunger in the top. The tube was full of chocolate pudding, and when the plunger was pushed down, pudding would be forced out of the cut out holes. The dessert pods were literally these little fist-sized pods with a tiny opening (and pottery cap). They contained a creme broule concoction. The dinner guests had a tiny ceramic spoon they could use to get the contents of the pod out, altho it didn't look like the form (albeit asthetically pleasing) had the most functional design. It was kinda fun watching them squish more pudding out of the feeding tube. That was the end of the DVD.
I finished up what I was working on in the glaze room, and set my items on the cone 10 reduction firing cart. I'm saving the tray to glaze later. I'm not sure how I want to do it yet, and want to see the results of the test tiles before I commit to anything.
Finally, I pulled out all the forms I had thrown last class. I was able to cut the last several off the bats. I put the pieces I wanted to treat seriously on one ware board, and the ones I could use for handle practice on another. I then attempted to trim my 3-point symmetry collapsed bowl.... and trimmed through the bottom. DANGIT! I really liked that piece. Oh well, I sadly submerged it into the clay reclamation sink. I was pretty much out of time by then (pushing 3:30pm), altho I wanted to get further with a number of my pieces, I was forced to wrap them up in plastic and put them back on the shelves.
Maybe I'll try to make the open lab on Thursday evening and get some stuff done.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
hana's fourth class
Sadly, I had to skip my fourth class. On the plus side, this was because I was out of town for a conference, and was able to take a long weekend to visit friends. It was great! Too bad about missing the next step of the random cups though. I probably won't recognize them when I go back this week.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
j's 3rd class
Today was the day following my marathon victory party. I was laying in bed not feeling so well in the morning (partly because I was mistakenly kicked in the stomach by a break dancer the night before.. which knocked me to the floor and ripped my top in 3 places including busting the 2 spaghetti straps, it was a total mistake, and I shook it off, but I can feel exactly where he kicked me today).
Finally, as I hit snooze AGAIN, I decided I should go to class, albeit late now. I got up, got dressed, and headed to PCC. I arrived to class about 15 minutes late, with a nalgene bottle of water in hand to sip on whenever I didn't feel so good (um, yeah, a little hungover).
I walk into the classroom, and Zach looks up at me from the front table and gives me a little smile (he's playing with some project he's working on). I look around the classroom. There is literally no one else there. No one. 15 minutes late, and I'm the only one to show up!!!
huh. I ask him where everyone else is, he shrugs. Now I'm glad I decided to come.
I see that the bisque firing has happened, and found my wonky mug and 1 of 4 test tiles. I totally looked and looked, but couldn't find the other three test tiles. No worries, I didn't plan to glaze today regardless. I'll look again next week. I also moved the asian tray and 2 bone dry bowls onto the bisque cart. Then I set about making balls to throw with.
I sit down at the wheel, and attempt to throw a soup bowl. It looks ok, but a little weird, plus the rim got a little too thin. I then try to throw just a cylinder, and the rim on that also ends up thin and uneven. I'm confused. I try another bowl, and the weight of it makes it sag and finally collapse on itself. Oops. It collapsed in a nice three point symmetry though, which I found pleasing. I decided to keep the calamity. Another classmate finally shows up... he too tries throwing on the wheel, and is having about the same luck as me, only he's trying to work bigger which means his collapses are even more heartbreaking. awwww....
Zach is watching me, and coming by and suggesting a thing or two on occasion. Finally he says maybe I should just try throwing a series of cylinders and work on some techniques around rims. I'm also noticing that air bubbles in the clay (altho less than before, since my kneading technique seems to be improving) is really messing me up... so I remembered one of my previous instructors who taught me how to knead the clay ON the wheel while centering. By moving the lump up and down a number of times you can actually work the bubbles out to the top and pop them before opening up the lump, and believe me that helps A LOT!! I started doing that wheel kneading as well as listening to Zach's suggestions. The forms I threw during the class started to look better and better in quality: both my control over the form as well as the thickness and height-evenness of the rim improved.
Meanwhile Zach started playing on the wheel next to me. He was throwing pots upside down!! He would center the clay, and then open it into a ring about 12 inches in diameter. From there he pulled the form up and towards the center, all the way until he was able to pinch close the top, then he smoothed out the form with a metal rib. It was AMAZING to watch.
He also showed me how to pull a handle ON the cup, instead of seperate, and a number of different options from the traditional pulled handle.
One of the problems I found I had this class tho was making the bottoms of my forms too close to the bat. I ended up cutting through the bottoms when wire-tooling them off the bat. Oops... I need to make sure to leave 1/2 to 3/4th an inch in the future.
I must have thrown 7 to 8 forms this class, the last 2 being my strongest to date (ok, a cylinder, and a bowl, nothing terribly exciting). I also went through nearly half of my throwing clay this class. No worries tho, I can get more. It was kinda neat having nearly private throwing instruction... and altho in the past I noticed that Zach hasn't been terribly friendly to me, today we seemed to actually enjoy eachother's company (beyond him teaching and me learning). We were listening to NPR during the entire thing, and laughing at the same jokes, which always is good.
Anyway, I think he gets me a little more, and appreciated my showing up, and eagerness to improve my technique.
He said next week we may do a glazing demo.
Anyway, due to my lingering minor-hangover, and my lack of breakfast, I decided to cut out around 2:30pm and go home. I wouldn't have minded staying longer if I had the energy, but perhaps I shouldn't party as hard (and certainly avoid getting kicked) on future friday nights.
Finally, as I hit snooze AGAIN, I decided I should go to class, albeit late now. I got up, got dressed, and headed to PCC. I arrived to class about 15 minutes late, with a nalgene bottle of water in hand to sip on whenever I didn't feel so good (um, yeah, a little hungover).
I walk into the classroom, and Zach looks up at me from the front table and gives me a little smile (he's playing with some project he's working on). I look around the classroom. There is literally no one else there. No one. 15 minutes late, and I'm the only one to show up!!!
huh. I ask him where everyone else is, he shrugs. Now I'm glad I decided to come.
I see that the bisque firing has happened, and found my wonky mug and 1 of 4 test tiles. I totally looked and looked, but couldn't find the other three test tiles. No worries, I didn't plan to glaze today regardless. I'll look again next week. I also moved the asian tray and 2 bone dry bowls onto the bisque cart. Then I set about making balls to throw with.
I sit down at the wheel, and attempt to throw a soup bowl. It looks ok, but a little weird, plus the rim got a little too thin. I then try to throw just a cylinder, and the rim on that also ends up thin and uneven. I'm confused. I try another bowl, and the weight of it makes it sag and finally collapse on itself. Oops. It collapsed in a nice three point symmetry though, which I found pleasing. I decided to keep the calamity. Another classmate finally shows up... he too tries throwing on the wheel, and is having about the same luck as me, only he's trying to work bigger which means his collapses are even more heartbreaking. awwww....
Zach is watching me, and coming by and suggesting a thing or two on occasion. Finally he says maybe I should just try throwing a series of cylinders and work on some techniques around rims. I'm also noticing that air bubbles in the clay (altho less than before, since my kneading technique seems to be improving) is really messing me up... so I remembered one of my previous instructors who taught me how to knead the clay ON the wheel while centering. By moving the lump up and down a number of times you can actually work the bubbles out to the top and pop them before opening up the lump, and believe me that helps A LOT!! I started doing that wheel kneading as well as listening to Zach's suggestions. The forms I threw during the class started to look better and better in quality: both my control over the form as well as the thickness and height-evenness of the rim improved.
Meanwhile Zach started playing on the wheel next to me. He was throwing pots upside down!! He would center the clay, and then open it into a ring about 12 inches in diameter. From there he pulled the form up and towards the center, all the way until he was able to pinch close the top, then he smoothed out the form with a metal rib. It was AMAZING to watch.
He also showed me how to pull a handle ON the cup, instead of seperate, and a number of different options from the traditional pulled handle.
One of the problems I found I had this class tho was making the bottoms of my forms too close to the bat. I ended up cutting through the bottoms when wire-tooling them off the bat. Oops... I need to make sure to leave 1/2 to 3/4th an inch in the future.
I must have thrown 7 to 8 forms this class, the last 2 being my strongest to date (ok, a cylinder, and a bowl, nothing terribly exciting). I also went through nearly half of my throwing clay this class. No worries tho, I can get more. It was kinda neat having nearly private throwing instruction... and altho in the past I noticed that Zach hasn't been terribly friendly to me, today we seemed to actually enjoy eachother's company (beyond him teaching and me learning). We were listening to NPR during the entire thing, and laughing at the same jokes, which always is good.
Anyway, I think he gets me a little more, and appreciated my showing up, and eagerness to improve my technique.
He said next week we may do a glazing demo.
Anyway, due to my lingering minor-hangover, and my lack of breakfast, I decided to cut out around 2:30pm and go home. I wouldn't have minded staying longer if I had the energy, but perhaps I shouldn't party as hard (and certainly avoid getting kicked) on future friday nights.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
hana's third class
The third class was really relaxing. I showed up at just the right time to easily park and meander into class maybe 5 minutes early. Having the parking permit for the whole quarter makes it so much simpler. I had eaten my leftover lunch (saag paneer) before I left work at around 5, so I wasn't even hungry for dinner or anything.
I got my stuff out and then scanned the bisqueware ... hey, my two mug-cylinder pieces are fired! Excellent. I brought them over to my stuff but actually at the end of class just put them back over there because I didn't actually have time to glaze. Gary hasn't gone over glazing with this class yet; I actually have no idea where the glazes are!
At this point in the quarter, I had a huge lump of "reclaimed" clay. Basically a bunch of fairly wet scraps from the wheel experiments. I went into the back room and squished the clay down onto plaster to dry out a little. Later on I went back and wedged it all up. I probably have a good five pounds of reclaimed clay.
Once I was all set up, I went over and grabbed a wheel. Gary announced that as a class, we would be doing a grand experiment. He gave a demonstration of throwing off the hump, and then said we should each do the same, and each create a collection of tiny cups, such as one would use for sake. He said we'd put them all in one collective area and then next week we'd trim them randomly. Then the next week we'd glaze them randomly, and then each take home a number equal to how many we created, but that we'd all worked on. Sounds neat, so let's go!
Throwing off the hump started off frustrating. I had a hard time centering it to my satisfaction. I know you only have to center the top little bit, but the rest of it was wobbly that I couldn't focus on just the top. Anyway, eventually I just started throwing and ended up with a few different things. I cut through the bottom of a couple, sadly. Gary took one of the ones I cut through and tried to save it, but he couldn't. It was funny that he tried though. After throwing about five tiny cups, I had enough left to throw a regular size piece but not enough to throw from the hump anymore, so I made a small pitcher. It got really wonky at the top though, but I decided to go with it and see how it comes out eventually.
With the hump depleted, I retrieved my wedge of reclaimed clay and quickly threw a few things. A large bowl and a couple more cylinders. Then it was time to go!
I got my stuff out and then scanned the bisqueware ... hey, my two mug-cylinder pieces are fired! Excellent. I brought them over to my stuff but actually at the end of class just put them back over there because I didn't actually have time to glaze. Gary hasn't gone over glazing with this class yet; I actually have no idea where the glazes are!
At this point in the quarter, I had a huge lump of "reclaimed" clay. Basically a bunch of fairly wet scraps from the wheel experiments. I went into the back room and squished the clay down onto plaster to dry out a little. Later on I went back and wedged it all up. I probably have a good five pounds of reclaimed clay.
Once I was all set up, I went over and grabbed a wheel. Gary announced that as a class, we would be doing a grand experiment. He gave a demonstration of throwing off the hump, and then said we should each do the same, and each create a collection of tiny cups, such as one would use for sake. He said we'd put them all in one collective area and then next week we'd trim them randomly. Then the next week we'd glaze them randomly, and then each take home a number equal to how many we created, but that we'd all worked on. Sounds neat, so let's go!
Throwing off the hump started off frustrating. I had a hard time centering it to my satisfaction. I know you only have to center the top little bit, but the rest of it was wobbly that I couldn't focus on just the top. Anyway, eventually I just started throwing and ended up with a few different things. I cut through the bottom of a couple, sadly. Gary took one of the ones I cut through and tried to save it, but he couldn't. It was funny that he tried though. After throwing about five tiny cups, I had enough left to throw a regular size piece but not enough to throw from the hump anymore, so I made a small pitcher. It got really wonky at the top though, but I decided to go with it and see how it comes out eventually.
With the hump depleted, I retrieved my wedge of reclaimed clay and quickly threw a few things. A large bowl and a couple more cylinders. Then it was time to go!
Sunday, October 7, 2007
j's 2nd class
Now, this was a special class for me. It was taking place the day before the portland marathon which I was registered to run in. I signed up for pottery for (among other reasons) the opportunity to use this class to calm myself and distract myself from the marathon.... particularly today. It was indeed a good day to play with dirt. :)
I arrived around 9:30am to find the door to the classroom locked. Zach, the instructor, was inside, but poked his head out the door (after I knocked) to let me know he wasn't letting students in yet since he can't leave the ceramics lab unattended, and he would be coming and going for a bit still. I wandered instead around the new MAHB building where they had up several impressive art displays, and studied each for a while, then I went and sat outside and snacked on some salted peanuts I had brought with me. Finally I was bored and went back inside to find other students sitting outside the classroom waiting to be let in. At about 9:55 or so, Zach finally unlocked the door and allowed us entrance.
The class started with a little hand-building demo where Zach showed us the steps to make this asian-looking rectangular tray with feet. He talked about how to use your needle tool to scratch a design in the leather hard surface and then after bisque firing use a stain wash to bring the design out under a clear or translucent glaze. He suggested, if we want to make larger hand-built items, to roll out slabs at the beginning of class and letting them set for a while before we use them so they can firm up. He also recommended rolling out a rope of clay, and pushing that and smoothing that into any join between 2 slabs to give a nice, clean, finished corner without a gap. This is particularly a good idea if the item is supposed to hold a liquid (i.e. a cup, bowl, or vase).
After watching the demo, I was interested in trying some of these techniques Zach showed us, and admittedly I liked the tray design that he was using, so I decided to attempt my own version of this tray. Monkey see, monkey do. I figured it was good practice, and from there I could assimilate these new techniques into other things. Following the demo I used the slab roller and made myself a couple slabs that I left out to harden up a bit.
After this I went ahead and set myself up at a wheel. I did not feel calm enough to attempt to throw anything at the wheel today, so I left that alone. I was planning on trimming the 2 bowls I threw last class. Before I had a chance to start trimming tho, Zach had set himself up at a kick wheel for a quick wheel-throwing demo.
He quickly centered the lump, but was having issues centering the bottom of it (he claimed in his haste he failed to knead the clay well, and that was the issue). He said he was going to "throw off the hump" instead, and began working the centered clay ABOVE the bit that was wonky. He let the uncentered wonk just be, and pretended it wasn't even there. That was interesting. He showed how he made the initial hole with his middle finger (not his thumb like I normally do), and hooked his finger under to do the initial opening of the clay. Behind him he had a display of cross sections of clay showing what the lump should look like at each step of the process of the initial opening. This was actually a neat reference guide. He then explained the various pressure he exerted on the clay to make it stay up straight. I was noticing I was unable to throw a cylinder last class, and instead seemed to always pull out a bowl form initially, so this is something I hope to try next class.
Once he was done with his cylinder (the size of a large coffee mug), he wire tooled it off the wheel and placed it on the edge of the wheel, then turned that around towards us (the students), and then wire tooled open the cylinder to reveal the cross section and show off the perfectly consistent wall thickness throughout the form. He also admitted that everyone needs to find their own style, so play with it and figure out what works for you. Demo complete.
Some students boldly made themselves some balls to throw with to attempt the wheel for the first time. I sat down with my tools to trim. I had to remove alot of clay from the base (I could have cut into the base a bit when I initially threw the forms to make this less of a chore... I'll try to remember that next time). It took me a while, but I finally had two bases on the bowls that I approved of. I decorated both with a little engobe for fun, carved my name in the bottom, and set them on a shelf to dry out.
I also moved my test tiles and the wonky mug from last week to the bisque cart after scratching my name on them.
After this I came back to the slabs I had out. I carefully cut out the forms from the slab, took some smelly slip from the slop sink to use in attaching the slabs, and carefully went about assembling the tray. I got alot of compliments on my project while I was focussed on it, and I thought that was weird since, um, it was more or less the exact same design as the course instructor's demo, but oh well. Once I got to the step where I was supposed to roll out the rope of clay and seal the join, I couldn't do it. I don't know why, but I wasn't comfortable shoving a rope of clay into the corner and trying to blend it. I decided to skip the step.
Finally I coated the entire tray in a brown engobe (after studying the test tiles in the glaze room and deciding I'd like to attempt a reduction firing on this tray), carved my name on the bottom, and set that out on the shelf to dry out also.
Then I cleaned up my messes on the wheel, and on the canvas-topped table.
It was only 2:30pm, but I decided to call it a day since my mom was going to be picking me up at some point. She was in town for the marathon and had my car. I didn't want to make her wait for too long. Unfortunately, since she was stuck in downtown traffic, I ended up waiting for her to show up for about 45 minutes or so, during which I attempted to call Hana to complain that I was abandoned at PCC.
Hana didn't answer, and I didn't leave a message, so she would have no idea what I was calling about. ;)
I arrived around 9:30am to find the door to the classroom locked. Zach, the instructor, was inside, but poked his head out the door (after I knocked) to let me know he wasn't letting students in yet since he can't leave the ceramics lab unattended, and he would be coming and going for a bit still. I wandered instead around the new MAHB building where they had up several impressive art displays, and studied each for a while, then I went and sat outside and snacked on some salted peanuts I had brought with me. Finally I was bored and went back inside to find other students sitting outside the classroom waiting to be let in. At about 9:55 or so, Zach finally unlocked the door and allowed us entrance.
The class started with a little hand-building demo where Zach showed us the steps to make this asian-looking rectangular tray with feet. He talked about how to use your needle tool to scratch a design in the leather hard surface and then after bisque firing use a stain wash to bring the design out under a clear or translucent glaze. He suggested, if we want to make larger hand-built items, to roll out slabs at the beginning of class and letting them set for a while before we use them so they can firm up. He also recommended rolling out a rope of clay, and pushing that and smoothing that into any join between 2 slabs to give a nice, clean, finished corner without a gap. This is particularly a good idea if the item is supposed to hold a liquid (i.e. a cup, bowl, or vase).
After watching the demo, I was interested in trying some of these techniques Zach showed us, and admittedly I liked the tray design that he was using, so I decided to attempt my own version of this tray. Monkey see, monkey do. I figured it was good practice, and from there I could assimilate these new techniques into other things. Following the demo I used the slab roller and made myself a couple slabs that I left out to harden up a bit.
After this I went ahead and set myself up at a wheel. I did not feel calm enough to attempt to throw anything at the wheel today, so I left that alone. I was planning on trimming the 2 bowls I threw last class. Before I had a chance to start trimming tho, Zach had set himself up at a kick wheel for a quick wheel-throwing demo.
He quickly centered the lump, but was having issues centering the bottom of it (he claimed in his haste he failed to knead the clay well, and that was the issue). He said he was going to "throw off the hump" instead, and began working the centered clay ABOVE the bit that was wonky. He let the uncentered wonk just be, and pretended it wasn't even there. That was interesting. He showed how he made the initial hole with his middle finger (not his thumb like I normally do), and hooked his finger under to do the initial opening of the clay. Behind him he had a display of cross sections of clay showing what the lump should look like at each step of the process of the initial opening. This was actually a neat reference guide. He then explained the various pressure he exerted on the clay to make it stay up straight. I was noticing I was unable to throw a cylinder last class, and instead seemed to always pull out a bowl form initially, so this is something I hope to try next class.
Once he was done with his cylinder (the size of a large coffee mug), he wire tooled it off the wheel and placed it on the edge of the wheel, then turned that around towards us (the students), and then wire tooled open the cylinder to reveal the cross section and show off the perfectly consistent wall thickness throughout the form. He also admitted that everyone needs to find their own style, so play with it and figure out what works for you. Demo complete.
Some students boldly made themselves some balls to throw with to attempt the wheel for the first time. I sat down with my tools to trim. I had to remove alot of clay from the base (I could have cut into the base a bit when I initially threw the forms to make this less of a chore... I'll try to remember that next time). It took me a while, but I finally had two bases on the bowls that I approved of. I decorated both with a little engobe for fun, carved my name in the bottom, and set them on a shelf to dry out.
I also moved my test tiles and the wonky mug from last week to the bisque cart after scratching my name on them.
After this I came back to the slabs I had out. I carefully cut out the forms from the slab, took some smelly slip from the slop sink to use in attaching the slabs, and carefully went about assembling the tray. I got alot of compliments on my project while I was focussed on it, and I thought that was weird since, um, it was more or less the exact same design as the course instructor's demo, but oh well. Once I got to the step where I was supposed to roll out the rope of clay and seal the join, I couldn't do it. I don't know why, but I wasn't comfortable shoving a rope of clay into the corner and trying to blend it. I decided to skip the step.
Finally I coated the entire tray in a brown engobe (after studying the test tiles in the glaze room and deciding I'd like to attempt a reduction firing on this tray), carved my name on the bottom, and set that out on the shelf to dry out also.
Then I cleaned up my messes on the wheel, and on the canvas-topped table.
It was only 2:30pm, but I decided to call it a day since my mom was going to be picking me up at some point. She was in town for the marathon and had my car. I didn't want to make her wait for too long. Unfortunately, since she was stuck in downtown traffic, I ended up waiting for her to show up for about 45 minutes or so, during which I attempted to call Hana to complain that I was abandoned at PCC.
Hana didn't answer, and I didn't leave a message, so she would have no idea what I was calling about. ;)
Friday, October 5, 2007
hana's second class
I drove my car to work so that I could drive straight to class after work. Last week I got there ridiculously early, so this time I tried to stay relaxed and head over there at a reasonable time. Last week when I tried to park, all the permit dispensers had covers on them saying not to buy permits that week. This time, I was required to buy a permit. So I drove all over looking for permit machine, and finally found one. Oops, it doesn't take credit cards. I scrounge around for $2, which I found in the form on one dollar bill and four quarters. I stuck in the dollar, then start putting in the quarters. The quarters are rejected, over and over. Fine. I'll go to another permit machine. Oops, the cancel button isn't working. Great, I've lost a dollar.
Since I now no longer had enough money to buy a permit in cash, I realized I had to find an office somewhere on campus that sold permits so that I could use my card. First I had to find visitor parking, and pay 25 cents for a 45 minute permit. (There were signs everywhere that said they will *tow* cars without permits, not just ticket them. Yikes!) Campus is very confusing, there are signs starting you off in the right direction, but then there are no other signs further along the way. I went up some stairs only to find myself at the wrong end of an exit only door. I wandered around strange concrete square building after another (the brutalist architectural style, if you're curious), scooting around construction fencing, and finally found a room that looked like it might have college staff in it. Hooray, success, and the purchase of a quarterly permit for a measly $16. Drive back to the area near my class, scarf down half a tuna sandwich for dinner, and saunter into class only 15 minutes late.
After all that stress, it was nice to slow down and play with dirt. Gary gave a demo on pulling handles, so for about 10 minutes I just pulled handles. It was relaxing. I messed up quite a few, by pulling it unevenly and the thin section giving out and breaking off, but I did get two good handles made that were to go on the two cylinders I made last class. I set them up on the table to start firming up a bit in their proper shape, and then went to play on the wheel.
I had several throwing balls left over from last class, so I was able to just jump in and start throwing. Centering was faster this week, and I had more success on height and purposeful shape this week as well. It was very satisfying. I ended up making another cylinder that might end up being a good size coffee mug (10 ounces?), a fairly large bowl for soup or cereal, and the body of what might end up as a sugar bowl if I can manage a lid for it next week. Gary did another brief demo in the middle of class about making more spherical type shapes, so I was inspired as well. He also showed how to made a recessed area for the lid to sit in, which was like a revelation to me. I made one on my spherical object. Hopefully we'll review lids next week!
Near the end of class, I did some work on my cylinders from last week. I put them on the wheel and used the carving tools to shape a foot on each one. I had forgotten how satisfying this step is. I like the spiral streamers of clay that come off. Then I took the cylinders back to the table to attach the handles. Gary has a slightly different method for this from my other teachers as well. I tried one handle using my old method, and one using Gary's. It's not that terribly different, but still, it's interesting how many different ways there are to do stuff.
Then, it was time to clean up. I washed off my wheel and my table, and set my two cylinders-now-mugs on the bisque rack to be bisque fired. Good day.
Since I now no longer had enough money to buy a permit in cash, I realized I had to find an office somewhere on campus that sold permits so that I could use my card. First I had to find visitor parking, and pay 25 cents for a 45 minute permit. (There were signs everywhere that said they will *tow* cars without permits, not just ticket them. Yikes!) Campus is very confusing, there are signs starting you off in the right direction, but then there are no other signs further along the way. I went up some stairs only to find myself at the wrong end of an exit only door. I wandered around strange concrete square building after another (the brutalist architectural style, if you're curious), scooting around construction fencing, and finally found a room that looked like it might have college staff in it. Hooray, success, and the purchase of a quarterly permit for a measly $16. Drive back to the area near my class, scarf down half a tuna sandwich for dinner, and saunter into class only 15 minutes late.
After all that stress, it was nice to slow down and play with dirt. Gary gave a demo on pulling handles, so for about 10 minutes I just pulled handles. It was relaxing. I messed up quite a few, by pulling it unevenly and the thin section giving out and breaking off, but I did get two good handles made that were to go on the two cylinders I made last class. I set them up on the table to start firming up a bit in their proper shape, and then went to play on the wheel.
I had several throwing balls left over from last class, so I was able to just jump in and start throwing. Centering was faster this week, and I had more success on height and purposeful shape this week as well. It was very satisfying. I ended up making another cylinder that might end up being a good size coffee mug (10 ounces?), a fairly large bowl for soup or cereal, and the body of what might end up as a sugar bowl if I can manage a lid for it next week. Gary did another brief demo in the middle of class about making more spherical type shapes, so I was inspired as well. He also showed how to made a recessed area for the lid to sit in, which was like a revelation to me. I made one on my spherical object. Hopefully we'll review lids next week!
Near the end of class, I did some work on my cylinders from last week. I put them on the wheel and used the carving tools to shape a foot on each one. I had forgotten how satisfying this step is. I like the spiral streamers of clay that come off. Then I took the cylinders back to the table to attach the handles. Gary has a slightly different method for this from my other teachers as well. I tried one handle using my old method, and one using Gary's. It's not that terribly different, but still, it's interesting how many different ways there are to do stuff.
Then, it was time to clean up. I washed off my wheel and my table, and set my two cylinders-now-mugs on the bisque rack to be bisque fired. Good day.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
j's 1st class
Turns out, my Saturday class is only 4 hours long, followed by a 3 hour "open lab" time that other people from other classes can come in and use also.
This works fine for me... I'll still try to use all 7 hours myself, cause I can.
My class is small. Only 8 people were registered. ALSO, as far as I can tell, no one is annoying! Hurrah!
The instructor, Zach Hamilton, told us that he was willing to leave the class syllabus open for whatever we wanted to spend our own time on, and he will give us advice and help while we are working on our stuff. He said we could do raku if we like (if there is class consensus on a date, cause it's a group effort), or whatever. It's nice to have the open options... but at the same time I'm SO glad we took that for-credit class 5 years ago that went over ceramics with some rigor and some annoying assignments that forced us to try things because I understand the medium better now. Before that class, if you handed me a lump of clay and told me to "have fun" I'm not sure I'd have attempted anything that would have even worked out.
A sweet retired lady named Judy and I bought our Mac10 clay from the book store and went straight for the wheel. She's been throwing pots for 10 years, so she's pretty good. I was a little embarrassed to be next to her, unsure if I was even going to be able to center the lump of clay I was working with.
Luckily for me, things seemed to work out better at the wheel than I was expecting. I had to convince myself to slow down a little, and quit expecting instant results. I was more comfortable working with the clay on the dry side rather than on the wet side. That's strange for me, I believe last time I tried to throw I was always a muddy mess.
At the wheel, I tried to pay more attention to the speed of the wheel for the work I was trying to do (something I remember always having trouble with), only have a couple points of contact with the clay, etc. I trashed 3 attempts, but kept 2. Two bowls... ones larger than the other. Neither are "perfect", but I decided to not be so picky, and would much rather bring stuff home that are slightly less-than-perfect than hold out for myself to throw something beyond my current experience and ability. I wanna have stuff from this class to admire!
Anyway, after 4 years of not being at a wheel, it felt good to try it again.
After this I made 4 test tiles to sample some class glazes on. They stand up on a little stand. On the front I made a textured surface, and on the back I used colored agobe: dark blue, black, light blue, and brown, so I can see what the glaze will look like over them. With the 4 test tiles I made I can sample 2 different glazes on them and see the results. I'll triple dip them in a specific pattern too, so I can see how 1, 2, and 3 coats of the glaze will act over the texture and the agobe.
I'm going to try to not go too crazy with glaze this time so atleast I have a better idea of what I'm thinking of doing with my pieces. Glazing is usually so difficult...
After this, I decided to buy a bag of hand-building clay also, since I didn't really do ANY hand building for the past 2 classes I was in, and I really missed it.
I hand-rolled out a slab of this clay, and then made a tallish cylinder with it (4.5" x 2.25"?), then went ahead and attached a base. At this point I was looking at it and thinking, "yeah, looks like a decent cylinder,"and this was annoying me. I decided to warp it by pushing my thumb into the side from both the inside and outside all over it to give it a lumpy look (keeping the lip and the base as close to a circle as possible). I like it.
Then I pulled a handle and attached it. It's a bit of a wonky handle, but I figured that was fine, since the mug exterior has been intentionally wonked. Zach came by at this point and showed me another alternative to making a pulled handle. I was so surprised, I'd never even considered making a handle before that wasn't pulled! I kept my handle as it was, but decided to try to the hand-built handle that Zach showed me at some point also.
It was a fun class, I'm already looking forward to next week also!
Oh yeah, and for the class we each got lockers out in the hallway where we could keep our clay and tools. That made things kinda convenient. I had to go buy a combination lock, but I'm thrilled to have my own storage space just outside the classroom.
This works fine for me... I'll still try to use all 7 hours myself, cause I can.
My class is small. Only 8 people were registered. ALSO, as far as I can tell, no one is annoying! Hurrah!
The instructor, Zach Hamilton, told us that he was willing to leave the class syllabus open for whatever we wanted to spend our own time on, and he will give us advice and help while we are working on our stuff. He said we could do raku if we like (if there is class consensus on a date, cause it's a group effort), or whatever. It's nice to have the open options... but at the same time I'm SO glad we took that for-credit class 5 years ago that went over ceramics with some rigor and some annoying assignments that forced us to try things because I understand the medium better now. Before that class, if you handed me a lump of clay and told me to "have fun" I'm not sure I'd have attempted anything that would have even worked out.
A sweet retired lady named Judy and I bought our Mac10 clay from the book store and went straight for the wheel. She's been throwing pots for 10 years, so she's pretty good. I was a little embarrassed to be next to her, unsure if I was even going to be able to center the lump of clay I was working with.
Luckily for me, things seemed to work out better at the wheel than I was expecting. I had to convince myself to slow down a little, and quit expecting instant results. I was more comfortable working with the clay on the dry side rather than on the wet side. That's strange for me, I believe last time I tried to throw I was always a muddy mess.
At the wheel, I tried to pay more attention to the speed of the wheel for the work I was trying to do (something I remember always having trouble with), only have a couple points of contact with the clay, etc. I trashed 3 attempts, but kept 2. Two bowls... ones larger than the other. Neither are "perfect", but I decided to not be so picky, and would much rather bring stuff home that are slightly less-than-perfect than hold out for myself to throw something beyond my current experience and ability. I wanna have stuff from this class to admire!
Anyway, after 4 years of not being at a wheel, it felt good to try it again.
After this I made 4 test tiles to sample some class glazes on. They stand up on a little stand. On the front I made a textured surface, and on the back I used colored agobe: dark blue, black, light blue, and brown, so I can see what the glaze will look like over them. With the 4 test tiles I made I can sample 2 different glazes on them and see the results. I'll triple dip them in a specific pattern too, so I can see how 1, 2, and 3 coats of the glaze will act over the texture and the agobe.
I'm going to try to not go too crazy with glaze this time so atleast I have a better idea of what I'm thinking of doing with my pieces. Glazing is usually so difficult...
After this, I decided to buy a bag of hand-building clay also, since I didn't really do ANY hand building for the past 2 classes I was in, and I really missed it.
I hand-rolled out a slab of this clay, and then made a tallish cylinder with it (4.5" x 2.25"?), then went ahead and attached a base. At this point I was looking at it and thinking, "yeah, looks like a decent cylinder,"and this was annoying me. I decided to warp it by pushing my thumb into the side from both the inside and outside all over it to give it a lumpy look (keeping the lip and the base as close to a circle as possible). I like it.
Then I pulled a handle and attached it. It's a bit of a wonky handle, but I figured that was fine, since the mug exterior has been intentionally wonked. Zach came by at this point and showed me another alternative to making a pulled handle. I was so surprised, I'd never even considered making a handle before that wasn't pulled! I kept my handle as it was, but decided to try to the hand-built handle that Zach showed me at some point also.
It was a fun class, I'm already looking forward to next week also!
Oh yeah, and for the class we each got lockers out in the hallway where we could keep our clay and tools. That made things kinda convenient. I had to go buy a combination lock, but I'm thrilled to have my own storage space just outside the classroom.
Friday, September 28, 2007
first class
Last night was my first class this quarter. It was great to get back to it. I was frustrated to find that I'm nowhere near where I left off four years ago. I struggled to make just two kind of funky cylinders to use with handle practice next week. I also arrived way too early; I was concerned about parking, directions, finding the lab, buying stuff. I was all set for class 30 minutes early, so I reparked the car closer to the lab and sat there eating some leftover palak paneer with naan and listened to NPR until it was time to go in. (I noticed lots of other people just hanging out in cars too, it was kind of funny.) The campus is really pretty, but a lot of the buildings look for some reason like they are closed and deserted even when they are in use. I'm not sure how that works.
We started the class with an introduction to the lab. The teacher Gary gave a brief talk at the beginning, asked what we'd like to do/talk about, some people threw out ideas like teapots, pit fires, different clays, plates. He pointed out that teapot work first needs a review of handles, spouts, and lids. My desires pretty much match exactly with those of the class, so that's great. Then he gave a demo on the wheel, which was a nice review. It was also fun to see how his style differed from the other two teachers I've had. Gary is more messy than my most recent teacher, more like Rue. Lots of water and sponge work. I forget my most recent teacher's name, but he liked to work very dry.
Then, FINALLY, after about an hour I was able to get my hands on some actual clay. I had arrived at campus early to buy tools (I wasn't able to find my old tools) and clay from the bookstore (not fun to lug around 30 pounds or so of clay for long) and had been eager to open the bag of clay. There's nothing like cutting into that new block of clay. I made four balls (each about 1.5 pounds) and took them over to the wheel. Oh, get this... this lab doesn't use bats! The wheel surface doesn't even have pegs to put a bat on. I guess you can put the pegs in when you want to use a bat, like for throwing a plate.
This is what our wheels look like:
Unfortunately, although there is a foot control, it's kind of too stiff or something to use effectively, so you have to actually take your hand off the clay and manually adjust the speed with the handle thing.
So I ran through the four balls pretty quickly, just centering them and practicing with opening. A couple of them I opened too far, so the bottom was too thin. One was too off-center and got all floppy as I pulled, so I abandoned it.
I went back to the table and made five more balls (faster this time! yay!) and went back to the wheel. At this point the teacher said we should try to make a few cylinders for next week so we can practice handles. So I went ahead and made a couple cylinders. Neither were great, I wouldn't have kept them if we weren't using them for practice. I can tell they are both going to shrink to an annoying size in firing, but that's ok. It was fine for a first day. Then it was time to clean up and go home. I was very dirty, tired, and happy.
We started the class with an introduction to the lab. The teacher Gary gave a brief talk at the beginning, asked what we'd like to do/talk about, some people threw out ideas like teapots, pit fires, different clays, plates. He pointed out that teapot work first needs a review of handles, spouts, and lids. My desires pretty much match exactly with those of the class, so that's great. Then he gave a demo on the wheel, which was a nice review. It was also fun to see how his style differed from the other two teachers I've had. Gary is more messy than my most recent teacher, more like Rue. Lots of water and sponge work. I forget my most recent teacher's name, but he liked to work very dry.
Then, FINALLY, after about an hour I was able to get my hands on some actual clay. I had arrived at campus early to buy tools (I wasn't able to find my old tools) and clay from the bookstore (not fun to lug around 30 pounds or so of clay for long) and had been eager to open the bag of clay. There's nothing like cutting into that new block of clay. I made four balls (each about 1.5 pounds) and took them over to the wheel. Oh, get this... this lab doesn't use bats! The wheel surface doesn't even have pegs to put a bat on. I guess you can put the pegs in when you want to use a bat, like for throwing a plate.
This is what our wheels look like:
Unfortunately, although there is a foot control, it's kind of too stiff or something to use effectively, so you have to actually take your hand off the clay and manually adjust the speed with the handle thing.
So I ran through the four balls pretty quickly, just centering them and practicing with opening. A couple of them I opened too far, so the bottom was too thin. One was too off-center and got all floppy as I pulled, so I abandoned it.
I went back to the table and made five more balls (faster this time! yay!) and went back to the wheel. At this point the teacher said we should try to make a few cylinders for next week so we can practice handles. So I went ahead and made a couple cylinders. Neither were great, I wouldn't have kept them if we weren't using them for practice. I can tell they are both going to shrink to an annoying size in firing, but that's ok. It was fine for a first day. Then it was time to clean up and go home. I was very dirty, tired, and happy.
Friday, September 21, 2007
jacqueline's class
I'll be in class for 10 weeks (skipping 11/24) on Saturdays from 10am-
1pm and 1:30pm-4:30pm, so 7 hour class days. Starting Sept 29!
I THINK I know where my tools are, and I'm pretty sure my 3 year old clay is pretty much unusable at this point. I should dig up my old notes and brush up on my ceramic memory. This is so exciting! I've been totally jonesing to get my hands on clay again!
1pm and 1:30pm-4:30pm, so 7 hour class days. Starting Sept 29!
I THINK I know where my tools are, and I'm pretty sure my 3 year old clay is pretty much unusable at this point. I should dig up my old notes and brush up on my ceramic memory. This is so exciting! I've been totally jonesing to get my hands on clay again!
hana's class fall quarter
My class will be Thursday nights, 6-9 pm. 10 weeks, from 9/27/07 to 12/6/07, skipping 11/22/07 (yay, Thanksgiving!). I'm starting in under a week! I wonder where all my tools are?? I wonder if I'll have to buy clay before the first class? Oh my!
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