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.

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.

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!

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!