My First 6 Pound Adventure!

Lots of new and exciting things happening on my pottery journey last week!  I trimmed the heck out of a bunch of pieces and am slowly bringing them to completion; here are a few pictures of stuff that is now waiting to be dry enough to go in the kiln:

This little guy is a commission from my mom – it’s a coffee mug for one of her co-workers.  The first incarnation of this mug didn’t work out (and is up for sale in the Etsy store) because of a glazing snafu that she wasn’t happy with, so hopefully this one will come out just right, especially since the end of the school year is coming up!

Here’s a bowl that had a wonky edge; rather than throw the poor thing away, I decided to go with trying to turn it into a yarn bowl:

Some new things in the works are these two little bowl things.  The one on the left is a ramen-type bowl, I guess, but it will be small like all of the rest of the bowls I’ve been throwing because I just didn’t have enough clay to make it bigger.  The one on the right may turn into a cat food dish for a friend of mine in VA.

Yay brown clay!  I’m back in love with it again!  ^_^

And, here is my 6 pound adventure!

Towards the end of class last Thursday, I decided that it was a night to go big or go home.  I wedged up 6 pounds of clay, easily the most I’ve worked with at one time so far, and spent a good 15 minutes centering it and getting used to pushing around so much clay with my body.  I wanted to throw a bowl (I had this beautiful low, wide bowl in my head), but the clay had other plans, and turned into this massive vessel instead.  I’m not sure what it will end up being yet – a fruit dish, or a vase, or something else entirely – but it’s gigantic, the biggest thing I’ve thrown so far – about a foot tall (10 inches tall when it’s been fired twice) and I think I got most of the clay up from the bottom, too.

What I realized is that although I’ve learned a new technique for pulling up the clay, 6 pounds is actually a lot to work with.  I have to go into the studio as often as possible to practice and get the muscle memory down if I’m going to throw anything bigger than a cereal bowl.  I’m fine with this!  I’ve spent the last two weeks busting my ass to bring quilts to my Kickstarter backers over at Which Stitchery, so I think I may take a bit of a break (either this week or next) to spend some time in the studio just throwing as prolifically as possible.  It’s how I learn; plus, I need some serious clay time!  Going only once or twice a week feels weird after the beginning of the year when I was at the studio daily.

And finally, here’s another small bowl I’ve finished and will have for sale in the Etsy store later this week.  Loving the blue/white glaze combinations, and I wonder what it will look like on the brown clay (I just glazed a few brown stoneware pieces with the blue/white and can’t wait to see how it comes out!).  Anyway, if you like this bowl, look for it later this week on Etsy!  ^_^

That’s all for now, folks… just got back from a weekend of camping, and I am exhausted!

Until next time…