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.