First trimming on the 2nd hand wheel (bit of a fail)

 So - I tried trimming/turning on my wheel the other day and it was kinda a fail - but still a good learning experience. After throwing the pots I left them out for a couple days; but because it's summer I think they dried too much, which made trimming them later on the wheel quite difficult - maybe it was impossible  to do a good job, because they were too dry?

I still don't hate it though so I don't consider this a complete failure! And of course it was a learning experience in terms of how long to leave pots out in summer and how it makes trimming feel.

In one of them I assume the dryness/hardness is what caused this funky effects below.

What also probably didn't help was that my centering probably wasn't perfect either. Oh well! Better luck next time.

---> There was a next time, by the way. I made 3 pots at the clay studio one day and then when I realised I wouldn't get back to the studio in time to trim them due to the summer weather, I went and picked up the 3 pots. And then dropped the bag on the way home, resulting in 3 manky dented pots. 1 of them got carved into to make a faceted pot and the other two I attempted to trim, and failed, and promptly smooshed them, ripped them up and stuck them in the reclaim bucket!

I'll try and add a picture of the faceted pot later on in another post. Now I have 3 pots just taking their time, drying away, while I figure out how to fire them at home - possibly in an incinerator bin or chiminea.

Oop

 Oups -

I spat in the face of my previous blog -

And, when payday rolled around, I picked up a few bits from my clay wishlist;

I got:

• Clay - cheap, grogged terracotta
• 1 large sponge for cleaning
• 1 cutting wire
• 1 large bucket for reclaim
• 1 wooden rib
• 1 metal flexible kidney rib

Not only that, though! While I can happily report that I did not shop at amazon for a cheap wheel or buy one off Vevor (for a start it looks like their pottery wheels don't deliver to the UK as I had to view the item on the Irish store), I did discover a 2nd hand cheap amazon-esque wheel on eBay for £80 - so that happened.

A couple of fellow clay studio folks were talking about the beginner wheels they'd acquired, and another had one of these cheaper wheels; and another had shared a video of a ceramicist reviewing one - as sufficient enough for a newbie - so I felt fairly safe in my punt.

It's arrived and appears to be working so I will give it a go. If it's awful, at least I haven't bought it new for upwards of £150, and if it satisfies someone else's needs then I can pass it along.

The next steps for me include trying to find a window of time to figure out a working setup in the conservatory, outdoors, or the summer house. I don't really have a suitable place to wedge at the moment, if needed. I know there's a big piece of wood I had knocking about somewhere pre-moving house, so if I can find that, I can use it on the floor and kneel down for the time being. We'll see!

Updates to follow, and I suppose you can see some of my janky pots I made at the last class I attended.