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!