Lumpy Ceramic Pots

Way back in January, a friend got a great idea to try a "Going Throwing!" class at FirePit Ceramics. I was eager to get my hands muddy again after a decade or more since my last ceramics experience. From these pots, it is hard to tell if I ever had any prior experience! Five minutes before the end of the one hour class, I realized how the FirePit Ceramic teachers had instructed me to use the wheel was the opposite positioning of what I have used in the past. I’m blaming that oversight on my part and the softness of white clay for my poor performance. Still, white clay is the prettiest to paint.

I’m thinking that there is an object lesson somewhere in this pot if it hasn’t already run out the bottom. The danger with keeping it is that eventually I’ll have to keep the pot because I’ve kept it for so long. Funny how longevity messes with my perceived value of an object.

A Stained Glass Art Panel

This little beauty of aqua, red, and blue was made back in July in an "Art Strip Workshop" at Blue Moon Glassworks in Austin, Texas. It's a quick, three hour class which doesn't even take the time to cement this piece. I'm assured it's such a small thing at only 3-inches wide and about 2-feet tall that it doesn't need the structural rigidity cementing would give it. Well, that and cementing takes a lot mess and time.

I'm pretty pleased with the piece. When I walked into the class I hadn't the slightest notion what the panel I would walk out with would look like. The student seated directly across from me was a lefty, and the way that the workstations were designed meant that our work spaces occupied the exact same square footage. She started building first, so that gave me a good 40 minutes to play with design and colors. (Albeit it also meant that I was rushed through my own build. I'd already taken a class working with lead before, so it wasn't detrimental.)

Now I just need to aquire a hook and chain so that I can hang it up!