Wednesday, March 31, 2010

It's been a while, but I try my hand at pottery again.....

At my daughter Amandas school, they have an open studio for the pottery class on Wednesday afternoons, and Amanda has been asking me to join her there. Today I was finally able to make it....


So, I decided I wanted to work on the wheel. I hadn't done that since I was her age, and I had enjoyed it then. Her teacher had told Amanda and her friends that they would be allowed to use porcelain for the first time, and the girls were excited to do so. I asked the teacher what the difference is to work with it, as opposed to working with regular clay. She said, "It is soft like jello, and much harder to work with because it's so much more fragile." So, when the girls asked me if I wanted to also work with the porcelain, I declined. I reasoned that with the expense of it, the fact that it's more difficult to work with, and that I hadn't done any wheel work for so long, I didn't want to waste it.

I opted to work with a regular white clay. My first attempts with it, ended up in a lump of goo, from re-working, and re-working, until it was almost more water than clay, and had to be put back in the bin to be reconstituted.

When I went back for more clay, I ended up with another white clay that was soft and smooth in my hands, and a total pleasure to work with. One of the girls asked me if I was using the porcelain, and I said I didn't know, but this one was sooooo buttery, and felt wonderful! She replied, "Yep, that's porcelain!" 



Ooops! Oh well, it was for me, much easier to work with, and I ended up with a nice porcelain bowl, which is currently drying. I'll go back and finish it with some design next week, and after it has been fired, I'll get to glaze it. :)

Meantime, I have some plans, that may just include porcelain after all. ;)

1 comment:

  1. Playing with clay is awesome. I haven't done that in ages. Jaqui you are a bad influence... I don't have space for another hobby!!!

    So when are we going to see pics of your creations?

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