Hey all you loyal tanda readers.
I had my first pottery class last Thursday. It was pretty cool! It hurt my back and my bum, but it still rocked. We are beginning with wheel throwing, which is the only ceramic work I’ve done. I actually found it easy to center the clay, something that completely flummoxed me eight years ago.
Centering is when you get the clay perfectly in the center of the wheel so there are no wobbles when you turn the wheel on. Sounds easy, but it’s not! Here’s a pic of a centered piece of clay:
So, then after you center it, you “open” the clay, which is the process of making the inside, basically. You stick your thumbs in the clay and make a divot.
After a little more work, you start raising the walls.
This is where I get into a little bit of trouble. I am out-of-practice and so I tend to overwork the clay and make the walls thin in some places. This is obviously not good for stability, so some of my practice pots this last Thursday kinda went “squish” in the middle and collapsed.
That’s okay, though. I figured if I could center the clay, I’d be way ahead of where I originally started. So, there it is. I centered and opened and raised some walls. No, those are NOT my hands up there. haha.
I just have to be a little more forceful and raise the walls with fewer throws. It’s all about firmness and rhythm. And the instructor is really nice and good about giving tips. I have gotten a lot of great info out of him already. I need to go in more often (there are open studio hours on Saturday) so I can get better and mail people cool stuff. ;)
As much as I love throwing on the wheel, I think I may try the handbuilding part of the class as well. I’ve never done it before, so it’ll be nice to branch out a little.
It’s so exciting to be making art again. Well, sorta. I mean, I haven’t made anything permanent yet. But I’m getting back in the groove, and that’s all that matters, right?
