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.