February 19th

I always enjoy Tuesdays. Because Tuesday nights always find me at Clayworks. Tonight's class was especially interesting. Ron showed us several wet surface decoration techniques -- (have I mentioned how OC I can be about surface decoration?) -- using different tools. I was duly impressed with what a cheese slicer can do...and the little doohicky thingy that's found inside old pencil sharpeners. The spring from inside a ballpoint pen (I volunteered mine) can create wonderful designs on wet clay! I may have lost a pen tonight but I gained a valuable new tool! I can't wait to try out some of these techniques.

I also had a pretty good night on the wheel. I believe I've turned a corner during this class. I'm throwing bigger. Bats don't hang me up the way they used to. My pulls bring up more clay and I don't need to make as many as I used to. The clay centers faster for me, and while it doesn't always stay centered, I can often get it back to an acceptable place. Best of all, I just feel a lot more relaxed when I throw now. Things just "feel" so much better.

Tonight I went in knowing exactly what I wanted to make -- a lidded casserole.



I'd made a couple of honey pots in previous classes but they were much smaller. I figured this would be a lot harder. Uh-uh. Not that an 8" diameter casserole is gargantuan. But it's a big step for me. I also threw 3 lids - Mama lid, Papa lid and Baby lid as it turned out. Papa lid looks like he'll fit the bill, though Mama looked prettier. I'll trim and add handles on Thursday night.



This weekend I'll throw some more of these after I glaze, glaze, glaze.