Pottery Class - Week #4

 Remember how I told you that I sprained my wrist snowboarding on Saturday, well, I was still able to make stuff at pottery class this week. I even made 3 pieces, trimmed 2 pieces and made a mug handle.

 Turns out I was lucky and the teacher and previously decided to teach us slab rolling as another option, which was pretty do-able with my wrist brace. 


This is the roller and stack of canvas that I was using.

 Here is my mug handle. Not the prettiest & most even, but I did it all on my own without the teacher helping me.


This was also one of the pieces I trimmed.

The 3 pieces lined up in front are my first 3 pieces of bisqueware, meaning that they were fired. All 3 pieces of greenware I set out to be fired did not crack or break. Woohoo! The bowls seemed to shrink quite a bit. Next step will be glaze these items, but we haven't learned glazing yet.


Only three more classes left. It seems like we still have so much more to learn and so much more practicing to do. 

Pottery Class #3

 This is the stack of all the plates we put on the wheel. Makes cleanup easier by putting these plates on there. Some leave their items right on the plates to dry. So far mine have all been able to be removed. Usually it is the bigger pieces that stay right on the plates.

 These are all the open drawers of the tools we use. Thankfully there are signs (should take pictures of them next week) that remind us what the tools we normally need are called & look like.

I am really happy they have everything there for us to use. I am considering buying a membership to the Art Center so that I can buy clay from there and use their stuff. They don't allow you to bring in your own clay. The cost of the clay they sell you includes use of everything, as well as firing and glazing.

 My creations this week. There was a fourth (well, it was 2nd chronologically) that was weak in an area and collapsed, so I have 4 creations drying this week.

I was able to trim out one of the pieces I made last week. The other one was still too tacky and had to go back to the shelf. I was able to move my 2 pieces from week 1 and 1 piece from week 2 to the Firing Room to the shelf labeled Greenware.

This was the first creation this week, used my clay. The second piece that collapsed was made with my clay. I imagine this might make a good fruit bowl.

What I mean by "my clay" is the clay I purchased from the Art Center. All of us bought 25 pound bags of this clay and it was all quite hard and we switched to recycled clay after a while, which is what the other 2 pieces (lighter in color) are made from.

 The one on the left was my 3rd attempt. If this make it, it could become a planter.

The one on the left & bottom was my fourth creation. I was attempting to make something to be used as a vase. This is a shorter one that would be good to hold all the flowers in our landscaping. I would like to attempt a taller one too. So many things to learn. I still want to learn to make a saucer too.

I know I have mentioned ideas of how to use each item, but in actuality they told us to expect that half our stuff is going to break. Well, that's discouraging.

But now I have this sprained wrist, so I am not sure how much I can do in my class on Thursday. Although I will have 4 pieces to trim out and a mug handle to make, so that will take some time to do all of that. I will ask to use the recycled clay again since that did was very soft and see if I can work with that and tape up my wrist to support it. If it won't work I may ask the teacher to build up my clay for me and than I can take over with the opening part. I hope I can make at least one piece, but we'll see.

Snowboarding

So, I took snowboarding lessons with a friend this past Saturday. This was shortly before I crashed and hurt myself. I am hoping it is just a sprained wrist. Over the last 40 hours the pain has gone down & mobility has increased, so I hope that continues & that there is no fracture in there. Ugh.

My thoughts before crashing (although I only crashed because I was trying to avoid crashing in to my instructor who had just crashed into a young boy who swerved in front of him at the last minute and I was supposed to be boarding down behind my instructor following the same path, but 15-20 feet behind him) were that this felt uncomfortable holding my feet in the position and taking a high squat position for the trip down the hill. I also had a hard time figuring out how to undo my straps.

I didn't like that as soon as I turned my board even the slightest I would start going down, whereas with skiing I felt like I could stop pretty easy. I thought leaning on the board to keep it from going down was uncomfortable too. With all that said, I was progressing pretty good in my lesson and caught on fairly well. If I had not crashed & hurt myself I might have gotten used to the feeling of being in the board and using it. Skiing felt much more natural for me.

I am not sure I would do another lesson. I did think our instructor pushed us a little fast , so a different instructor might make me feel different too. I liked skiing much better.

Pottery Class #2

 The top picture is  of all my creations so far. This second class I made another mug & another small bowl (bowl are facing right side up) and then trimmed the bottoms on my other small bowl and mug and added a handle to my mug (I cut off the handle in picture - oops!).

This is a close up of the two I made this week. I really wanted to make a vase, but I can't figure out how to get the clay to move up so tall & narrow. I am going to have to ask for help from the teacher on that one. I would also like to make a plate some time, but at this rate I am going to have a bunch of bowls & mugs. Hope everyone wants those for Christmas in 2012.