Tuesday 16 October 2012

Throwing Shapes


... no, not on the dance floor. I finally made myself find some time to sit at the wheel and and get some clay spinning. It was good, but it was bad! It's very frustrating knowing where you want to get to, but knowing what you have to go through (or throw) in order to get there!! My first one always goes kinda ok, but then they seem to get progressively worse. Then I regrouped and settled down and the pots seemed to actually be achieving something (the fact that "something" was just a cylinder is neither here nor there!). I was finding my hands were finally figuring out what they should be doing and i relaxed a bit. I now feel encouraged to keep up this practice and somehow find a bit more time. I'm going to use these pots to do another firing and try and get this glaze and kiln working together. Until I can get that sorted i feel a bit on-hold. Don't expect to see any pot pictures for a while,  after all who wants to see pics of badly thrown pots?? Ha.


4 comments:

  1. I had a teacher once that requested the class make 100 cylinders by the end of our eight weeks. I took a 25 pound bag of clay and threw 25 cylinders, rewedged the clay, threw 25 more, rewedeged, and so on until I had 100. At the end of the process, I could wedge clay without air bubbles and I had the muscle memory to throw a consistent cylinder. It was a good exercise and after that my throwing skills greatly improved. It just takes making a lot to make anything that's good. Time grasshopper!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ha! you know it Tracey...... and I know it. It is tough though when i have so few moments with clay, to spend them on something with no end result other than 'experience'. there are things i want to make... but that's me being impatient, when i know what i really want to do is throw... and then construct/play. gotta throw, gotta know... so practice it is. I shall loose my pottery folk along the way though, if i don't start posting clay!!! ha ha

    ReplyDelete
  3. Glad you got some time to make some pots at the wheel. Yes, it's all practice. And you may as well get some glaze tests etc fired as you go too. Good idea. I could stand to do that exercise that Tracey mentions. My wedging is awful. And it's always a good idea to work on my cylinders.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey Ron, thanks for checking in. I plan to get some more throwing done at the weekend. I'm sure you wedge significantly better than me, ha! ... have you bought that book yet? ... you should.

    ReplyDelete