Some more trimmed pots 🍯

 

Trimmed these fellows in the most recent class; we have our last one tonight, glazing!

I've enjoyed doing this 6 week throwing course, felt like I've learned a bunch and also made a load of pots I can give away as gifts (I'll keep one or two I guess). I hope I can keep throwing afterwards...

As an aside, O has been sleeping terribly lately, so I haven't had a lot of energy outside of work and childcare; hence the lack of posting. I have been able to sketch here and there, and have plodded on with my various knitting projects. 

The only thing that's really coming along is my reading every (ish) night! I've read 3 of the Stormlight Archive books, and am currently trying to make a dent in my 'to be read' pile (also known as the bookcase). I'm taking a break from Stormlight to read Safe Area Gorazde, a non-fiction comic about the Bosnian war, by Joe Sacco. It's gutting.

throwing class week 3 🎡

 

Not got anything smart to say here, except we trimmed pots! Now the pots are slightly more dry we removed some of the excess clay from the bottoms to make the pots more neat, balanced and lighter weight-wise.

Some of mine are still hefty, like the centre front pot which is like a paperweight! But that should be fine if it has enough time to dry out. These will be dried then biscuit fired before I get to play with some surface decoration.

I'm happy with how they look and am looking forward to glazing, seeing how they turn out and then of course giving them away to friends as various birthday and possibly Christmas presents. Perhaps I'll keep one or two 🤔

throwing class #2 🎡

 I'm back on a 6 week throwing course at the studio! 

My first discovery on the course was that I think I had forgotten I'm meant to have the pottery wheel turning anti clockwise, and that could probably explain why my attempts haven't been going super well at home.

So my attempts at centering last night went better. And it appears that when I'm centering I often get a bit of clay right at the bottom (closest to the wheelhead surface) that doesn't get centred (cause it's just a tiny bit under my hands that's not going to be thrown). And then this wobble coming from the bottom makes me skeptical about whether my actual throwing clay is centred or not. So I need to be conscious of this and maybe remove some of the extra gumpf at the bottom of the wheel after initially trying to centre.

Anyway, here's 3 pots I started. I made a 4th but it died 🥺

The first one I had fun with making a different shape, and then also messed up picking it up off the wheel.

A general cylindrical shape.

I messed up the top on this one so I decided to see what would happen if I kept constricting it further and further, and I managed to close it off - it's a bit wonky though! Also I have no idea how much water is trapped inside, so I will try to drain it next week.

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.

Testing out my cheap 2nd hand wheel 🛞

 

I had today off from work and a couple of hours to spend before an appointment, so I set up the 2nd hand wheel that I had bought online. It's a generic model, I don't think it has a specific brand or manufacturer, but it's easy to find if you search pottery wheel on various popular websites. I've seen this wheel sold new from anything between £100-150, but I got it 2nd hand for £80 including postage. I thought it's a fair deal for figuring out whether pottery at home is feasible, for me, a newly obsessed person with a tendency to forget about hobbies after a while.

General Points

• The wheelhead is noticeably small when throwing, 25cm in diameter or so, but I think it will be big enough for me to create small items like mugs, bowls, small plates, etc.
• The splash pan is easy to remove and reattach after cleaning.
• The speed control is not perfect but it's enough for me to have fast, medium, and slow speeds for each stage of throwing.
• The height is low, many people have said this for these cheap wheels. I think it's less of a problem for me as I am small, but I am still crouching like a gremlin. I think it'll take some time to get used to the needed posture here.
• I'm using a cheap foldable stool/step that I had in the kitchen to sit on.

Experience

Now I'm a beginner and will continue to be so for a while - so take my thoughts with a pinch of salt. I think this wheel will be sufficient for me while I'm still in the beginner and earlier intermediate stages. 

When centering, right at the beginning, I found the clay got a bit all over the place; more so than my experiences at the pottery studio (I think they have Shimpos and one other fancy wheel). But after the initial chaos everything worked as expected.

I'm going to admit; this session I only threw 2 pots, and I bet I had some slight off centre bits in my clay because I was impatient and very aware of the impending appointment I mentioned. I will give it all another go at some point soon and if there's anything new to report I will add it in!

In Other News

I finished my previous book, Butter by Asako Yuzuki, and started The Healing Season of Pottery by Yeon Somin. It's... as it looks and sounds, another in the cosy East Asian fiction genre that popped up over the past few years. I'm enjoying it a lot, I'm sure a big part of it is that it mirrors in some ways my own introduction to ceramics; but it is just a nice and chilled out read. I may even check out the author's other books or some other ones within the genre.