j's 6th class (pinching and whatnot)

Let's see, it was a couple days ago so I'll have to remember specifically what happened...

I believe I showed up about 30 minutes late this time, with coffee ofcourse. There was 1 other classmate there setting up, so no worries. I found Zach and asked him if he had any cardboard I could use. After scrounging around a bit, I scored a box the clay comes in. It was perfect. He asked me what I was going to use it for, and I told him for a template. I also asked Zach about attaching bottoms to things I've thrown on a wheel and then cut through. He suggested I continually spray the cylinders with water and cover with plastic to rehydrate, and also roll out the slab of Mac10 (throwing) clay to slowly dry out. The idea is to attach them when they approach the same level of hydration and hardness. I rolled out a slab. Then he watched me curiously as I cut out a horseshoe shaped template from the cardboard, and rolled a slab out with the DWS (hand building) clay.

After I was done with that, I went to the wheel with my "nice" cylinder that I didn't have time to trim last class, and sat there for a long while working on it. It had dried out a touch too much for the trimming to be easy, plus I had thrown and wired it off of the hump, and the wire tool had done some funky things to the bottom that I was trying to level out. After a long stuggle against the slightly too dry clay, Zach suggested I try spraying it with water as I trim. I started trying that, and by gum it worked like a charm. huh. I trimmed the cylinder to my satisfaction. Then I rolled out a rope of some Mac10 clay to harden up a bit for a handle for this cup before shaping and attaching later and sprayed and wrapped the trimmed cylinder for attach.

After this, I asked Zach about the correct technique for pinch pots. He seemed surprised, but I told him I'd never done a pinch pot before, so he happily got a lump of clay, sat across the table from me, and showed me how to pinch a small pot while I worked on making a couple things out of my DWS slab. He seemed totally amused that I showed up with an agenda of things to make. It was a short list, but I was determined. He even seemed surprised what I used the template for (I won't say here cause it is something for Hana and I'd like to keep up the appearance of surprise).

Finally I was able to get to the pinch pot, and I sat there pinching away. It's more delicate a process than I thought it would be. It's really easy to pinch too hard and make a section too thin, and there is no way to get the volume back in that area. I happily pinched out 2 little pots that nest one inside the other, and the inside pot with a little grip tab. See, I was making a place to put used tea bags! I asked Zach how to punch out holes, and that I've never done that before, and he laughed and said it seemed I was doing a lot of "firsts" today. He didn't even hesitate, and went to get his little hole punchers from his bucket of tools, told me I could use whichever I wanted.

Now, I just happened to remember when my needle tool broke earlier this semester, and he was REALLY reluctant to let me borrow a tool from him for the class period, I thought that was a funny turn around for him. I guess he had to get to know me a bit better before he trusted me with his tools.

Anyway, I finished that project and was able to attach the new bottoms to those 2 cylinders, and the handle to that one. Zach suggested I loosely wrap the handle in plastic so it dries a bit slower than the rest of the clay in the cup since it was a little thinner. Also he had me place the two new re-attached bottom cups upside down on the wheel and apply pressure via a rib to the bottom to help the attach of the slabs (he sat on the wheel next to me and worked on the same piece I was working on, it was kinda cool). After all this, Zach looked at me expectantly and asked, "what next?"

It was funny. I think he was disappointed that I didn't have any specific projects after all this. I put the new bottomed cylinders wrapped in plastic on the shelf to trim during the next class, and everything else on the shelf to dry out for bisque firing.

Following this (since I had about an hour before needing to clean up) I went ahead and kneaded out 3 balls for throwing. The first attempt was a BEAUTIFUL cylinder. The second was a sad melting effect that I ended up reclaiming after there was a bad result following trying to trim the rim to make it even. I was running out of time, so I decided to bag the third ball and start cleaning up. Around this time I noticed I was the last person left in the room. Some other students had come in for the open lab, but had finished and already left, I think this was around 3:20pm. Open lab goes until 4pm. I mentioned, "wait, am I the last one here?!?" and Zach replied "yes." in a mock-unhappy tone. It was funny.

Anyway, I cleaned up, and called it a day. Oh, by the way, I had moved the 5 pieces to the bisque cart first thing when I got there... the ones with handles.