Wax On – Wax Off
New Squared Mugs
Err, um…ahem, I seem to be having some issues – not the personal sort either, though I do have a few of those as well. But, this post is not about THOSE kinds of issues, although if I wax poetic all scholarly like, both could be related.
I find that I’m really rusty and out of practice as I begin the process of becoming reacquainted with clay. This is not a happy state of being for me since I want to exit the shoot hootin’ and a hollerin’ whipping out pottery left and right, filling my shelves to capacity with fluid ease. Instead, I’m ending up with some wonky ware with ugly handles. Sure, I’d love to just write about my success stories and make it look as though I live in pottery nirvana, but it doesn’t always work like that.
Anyone seen the new Karate Kid movie – or remember the original? I’ve decided that I need my own “wax on, wax off” (original) or “jacket off, jacket on the peg, drop jacket, jacket on” (new) kind of moment. Muscle memory is important when it comes to many different physical tasks including crafting pottery efficiently and with as little frustration possible.
I think I need to devote a day (or at least a couple 25 pound bags of clay) to repetitively throwing the same object/shape on the wheel till they begin to look fairly uniform. Then, I want to use the same approach to pulling handles, ‘cuz frankly mine stink! Maybe then I’ll have my aha moment…similar to Daniel san and I can stop fighting the clay. In all honesty, I should recycle the mugs in the photo above – they’re not worth keeping. It’s a good lesson to learn that everything we make is not precious and should be returned to the state from whence it began.
AND – really, square mugs? Not really practical when I think about the mechanics of drinking.
Guess What Ma?
No hands…just kidding.
I Can Still Center
And Throw
Although it did take me forever to select a clay body, wedge, collect my tools, a wheel and finally settle down to attempt to throw something – anything on Monday morning’s visit to the Colorado Potters Guild.
I decided to start with a bowl shape since it is fairly straight forward – and I wanted go easy on myself. No major expectations…just the desire to sit down at the wheel and throw some clay. I messed around with my first bowl for way too long and eventually it slumped into a big gob of gook. But, it felt so good to get back into clay and to just make time to do whatever it is that I wanted – with no pressure.
Did you know that potters use muscles that others might not? I can say this confidently because there are muscles on my back and arms that are sore from my mere 3 hours in the studio after a long absence. My wrists and forearms feel better though after suffering through a bit of carpal tunnel from intensive computer use the past 2 semesters in school. Must be the simple act of using them differently….
I will not likely return to the studio full time, but I do hope to find some balance between life, school and the studio the next couple of years I anticipate that it will take to earn a degree in landscape architecture.
Any tips on achieving and maintaining balance?
Teacher Appreciation Mug Gifts
Mugs thrown last Thursday
Where did the time go? Last week, I realized with a start that 5th grade graduation was a week away and I hadn’t even started making teacher appreciation gifts yet. Sure, I could have purchased something, but I wanted to give some of the teachers a more personalized gift. Plus, they all know me as a clay person and might have been a little disappointed to receive something store bought. Though, I don’t think that they expect gifts either….
So, with a week to go, I set out at warp speed to make some mugs.
Handles attached on Sunday – Bisque fired on Tuesday
With a little babying and some begging & cajoling, I added handles and bisque fired fasssssssssst – 4 days after making the mug bodies.
Whew – glazed and decal fired on Wednesday and Thursday respectively
I managed to squeeze all 5 mugs into my test kiln and got to glazing and adding decals.
My favorite mug – "math = language of the universe"
This one is my fave and is a present for Jasmine’s math teacher. I am super proud of my daughter – she skipped 5th grade math this year and she, along with a handful of other kids at her school did the 6th grade math curriculum with “Mr. Reeves”. One of his favorite sayings is “math is the language of the universe”.
Pretty cool…if I do say so myself
If you think about the statement, it’s true. 1 + 1 = 2 regardless if you’re in Denver or Shanghai or the planet Saturn.
For the art teacher who let me use her room every Tuesday after school for the past 2 years to teach my clay class
I can’t leave out the art teacher who I personally think has the hardest job in the school. She only gets 45 minutes a week with each class and is constantly cleaning up and preparing for a new class. There is no down time at all.
Look at the shrinkage between bisque and glaze fire!
I didn’t glaze all the mugs – only the ones that I absolutely needed today – last day of school. I was pretty surprised at how much the mugs shrunk after the glaze fire. The mugs were roughly the same size after throwing – used 1 lb of cone 6 porcelain clay. This is another example of seeing is believing…in the Mile Hi Ceramics Catalog it does say that shrinkage is about 18%.
I used to be sad that my daughter didn't look much like me, but clearly I'm relieved she takes after her dad 
But I digress. I mentioned earlier that I am super proud of my daughter – she is a good kid and a great student. I told her the other day that I hope she’ll stay geeky through high school – to which she responded, “I’m not a geek!” So I rephrased, “It’s okay to be a little nerdy….” Her response, “I’m not a nerd!” I tried again, “It’s okay – I’m a big dork myself.” Big smile from her, “Mom I’m a dork too.” I remembered that she and her posse of friends were called dorks in the beginning of the year by some of the “cool kids” and in their defense, they devised an ancronym in response to those who called them dorks.
D.O.R.K. = Defense Over Rude Kids. They weren’t called dorks for long.
Must leave to get ready for 5th grade Continuation,
Cynthia
This and That
Throwing porcelain – teacher appreciation gifts
I’ve been a little quiet on the blogging front this holiday weekend. I think it’s because my hubby is off work and we’ve been trying to fit some gardening in between thunder storms, playing games, and just hanging out with friends. I did manage to get a little throwing in on Thursday – I realized that only a week remained until the last day of school and decided to throw some mugs for teacher appreciation good bye gifts. I need to attach the handles this morning and then bisque fire tomorrow evening. Nothing like last minute planning…. I suppose worst case scenario, these don’t get fired and I purchase something. I tried, I really did.
Colored porcelain clay
I have also decided to work with some colored porcelain a là Jane Peiser style and dried some slip that I had previously colored with Mason Stains.
Meanwhile, we’ve been making plans for our big trip to Europe this June and spent the early morning looking at apartments for short term rent in Paris. Hubby and I decided to take a short side trip to Paris during the latter half of our trip to Germany – maybe 4-5 nights max. Round trip plane tickets from Frankfurt to Paris on Air France are only $113- per person and by getting an apartment for the 3 of us, we’ll save on dining out expenses. I’ve found some really cool, centrally located pedestrian friendly ones that aren’t terribly expensive – anywhere from 95 – 120 € which I don’t think is terribly bad for Paris. (The exchange rate is currently $1.39 to 1€.)
Gotta go make some handles,
Cynthia
P.S. We’re going to see the new Star Trek movie today – I’ve heard some positive reviews from friends who’ve seen it.
