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.
Monday, October 29, 2007
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.
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