hana's sixth (!) class

Today's class was absolutely awesome. It was the best, most productive class of possibly my entire career as a potter hobbiest.

I took today off work for "mental health" (ie, not sick but pretty low energy). I went for a run/walk (way more walking than I had hoped), and by the end of the day was feeling slightly better.

Last Saturday I went to a pottery store, the first one I've ever been to actually. It was amazing, and I bought two 25lb bags of clay, one brown and one red. I took the brown one in to class, and it's a beauty to work with. It's a little soft, so it took a bit to realize I had to be quite a bit gentler with it than my other clay, especially after considering last week's wrestling match. Once I got to know it a little though, I could make almost anything.

I started throwing as soon as I got to class, and managed to throw quite a large bowl while everyone else was settling in and Gary started discussing what our schedule will be like for the rest of the quarter. We're going to go to his house and do a pit fire on the last class! That should be fun. The large bowl kept my hands occupied as I listened. When I was ready to take it off the wheel, it really didn't want to come off, and finally I got frustrated and just yanked it off, pretty badly morphing it in the process. Oh well, I just set it aside for now.

Gary was then giving a demo on how to throw round pots (as in nearly spherical, not just cylinders). These are the pots it's best to put in a pit fire. I've thrown pretty round before, so the demo wasn't too enlightening, but I did learn some good tips. It's good to keep reminding your clay that you intend to go round as opposed to out for a bowl, so there were several times where he'd choke the top to get it back in line. He also showed how to push your outside thumb into the clay at the very bottom and then raise your thumb to force a wave of clay up the pot. If you do it right, the wave travels all the way up and becomes the new rim. If you do it wrong, the wave gets to the top and comes off in one separate ring. That kept happening to me. Annoying.

Anyway, I totally messed up the first sphere I attempted. I got it to a cylinder but as I began stretching out the walls, I guess I went too far, and it basically collapsed on itself. Gary walked by just then and said, "Wow! You should keep that! It's totally George Ohr!" I was all, "uh?" and he told me to look him up. I haven't found a lot of images in the Web yet, but I intend to do a little further research. I have to admit the piece does look kind of cool.

I then threw three increasingly successful spheres. I was happy with them. Then I cleaned up my wheel and brought everything to my table. I looked at the messed up bowl, and decided to play with it a little... and was able to pinch it into a decent square bowl! Whoa! It's pretty cool actually if it comes out. I still need to trim it and all, so we'll see.

Then I went about trying to find places to put everything on the shelves and put my name on them so I don't lose them. I still haven't glazed anything. Sigh.