Why do I feel like I start off every pottery blog saying “Today was one of those days…”
As Yoda would say, “Master I am not!”
Last week I threw 6 beautiful mugs and now there are 4.
I left them uncovered last week, which made them very hard and difficult to trim this week. My trimming tool got caught in the hard clay and flung one mug off the wheel and then smashed against the wall. The second disaster occurred when I trimmed too much in one place and actually split the mug in two. Bottm-less cup of coffee anyone? Rhea, my instructor at Plum Pottery East, said “If you wanted 6 mugs, you should have made 8.” So maybe I should say I wanted 4 mugs and that is why I made 6. But really, I want more mugs. So after I finished trimming the few mugs I had left, I went back to throwing more mugs today.
Yep, these puppies will be handle-less because they were just too darn hard to add handles too, but I was actually mentioning I wanted some mugs without handles. So yeah, I meant to leave them out uncovered and make them too dry. It was all part of my master plan!
So back to throwing I went…
Disaster….
After disaster…
Until finally I made a vessel I could probably drink out of. But then, guess what? My darling instructor tried to pick up the bat it was on and plop, it caved in! HOW COULD SHE???
Luckily she indeed is a master. She threw it back on the wheel and made it look better than it did before. Thank you Rhea! You can ruin then recreate my pottery any day! I shouldn’t joke, she felt bad. But really, it’s just clay. …You ruin one mug…you’ve ruined twenty…but who’s counting?
Do you like this mug? Yep, it was supposed to be a mug but somehow, when in my hands, things morph into something else. I needed another vase oh so desperately. Not!
On my last attempt, I did make a fabulous shaped vessel. It looks like an urn perfect for sipping coffee, a mini coffee urn! I wrote naughty things on my bat for my teacher to find. I think she’s as warped as I am…I hope. Nothing worse than a bad sense of humor!
Finally, some survivors made it through the bisque firing process. I will have to figure out how I want to glaze these next week. I almost like them the way they are!
So, I guess my great words of wisdom for this week would go a little something like this:
It is not so much about making something someone in your household might ever want to use, it is more about the journey and the good laugh you can have at your own expense at least once a week!
Just keepin’ it real!
Be Creative Mary 