Pottery

I so enjoy going to pottery class every week. For three hours I turn off my phone and I spend time working with my hands and laughing with other people who are enjoying the same hobby. The others in the class are great - everyone  encourages each other and helps out with tips and tricks. The instructor is laid back - he teaches you the skills you need, does a demo, but lets you just kind of go at it while offering help along the way if needed. It's a good balance of structure and freedom.

It took me a few weeks of pottery class to get anything worth keeping - but I eventually started taking things off the wheel and not smashing them back into a blob of clay. All of my first three were "accidents" - I was not trying to make a vase/mug/pitcher at the time I made each thing - though I don't remember what I was trying to make originally with each pieces.

Here are my first three pieces

A vase and a handle-less mug

 On the left is a vase that is "leather hard." (It had dried out a bit.) On the right is a coffee mug fresh off the wheel.  After the mug got to the "leather hard" stage I added a handle. It was a week between each stage for me just because I take a once-a-week class - it can happen faster. I left it covered in plastic so that it was a slow-drying process.

Short and Stout little pitcher

This is a leather-hard pitcher with a handle attached. Then I did the "covered in plastic slow drying" for a week thing - then left it uncovered to dry for a week before the firing began. Again, the process can go much faster if I could get to the studio more often.

Coffee Time!

The finished coffee mug!   The glaze is a matte blue gaze over the entire mug and then a glossy brown at the top that dripped down some. These two glazes together gave a very smooth finish - I've noticed that with some of the glazes you get a slight ridge or bump where the glazes meet. I don't have enough experience yet to know if that's the chemical  properties of the respective glazes or the glazer's error. ;-)

Vase with Flowers

 Here is the short vase, with flowers added. This glaze is a green on first, and then what was suppose to be a coppery color on the top - it came out more matted though. It's short but the opening is pretty wide so you can stuff a lot of flowers in there still :)

"here is my handle, here is my spout"

 And here is the little pitcher - the coppery glaze topped with a glossy brown. I like how the glaze turned out on this one.

I'm going to see if I can steep some loose-leaf tea in here - not sure how well it will retain the heat as it doesn't have a lid. It's too small to use really for a cold beverage, too big for a creamer. It could work as a vase though.