Ceramic Success

A sizable bag of clay (about 25 pounds?) was included in the price of our ceramics class, and I got 14 items made during the Winter term, with some left over!

I knew the potter’s wheel was going to be challenging, but it’s still a real struggle for me, even after a whole term of practice. It’s difficult to get the lump of clay centered on the wheel, spinning it fast and dripping on water… Then you have to punch-in on center to start your pot, and you want to work it as long as you can to make it thin, without working the clay too much and having it collapse on you. Then, you have 2 more challenges – once it’s mostly dry (but don’t wait too long), to trim away enough of the thick base to make a light, balanced piece. THEN, you try to guess from various sample tiles what glazes to use and how they might possibly turn out! It’s always a surprise, it seems – pleasant or not so pleasant. I found that I was very, very happy with some of my pieces while others came out astonishingly ugly. Well, I guess I had a few mildly successful ones, too, that weren’t spectacular. It’s pretty neat, though, to hold the finished piece in your hands and think, I made this! After firing it’s basically glass on stone, so the feeling of making something that solid, permanent, and functional is very satisfying. My bowls came out mostly a good ice-cream size… That’s another thing. The items shrink slightly at each step, so the size you made it on the wheel is not how it’s going to end up.

I was inspired by BN to try some pressed-in designs on some of my pieces. He’s the kind of guy who collects knobs and shot-bead chains and other things that have interesting shapes. So we had a whole assortment of goodies to impress upon our works of clay… One of my favorite bowls, the yellow one, has blue waves that I created using a cast-iron napkin ring. I also had success with painting on designs with a brush. And, I tried drip-application, too. This quarter I am going to take a 2-week glazing workshop, so I’m excited to learn more about the glazes and how they work.