Throwing Pots

Chip and I signed up for a six week beginners pottery class. Chip had taken pottery in college. We have one of the pieces that he did and it's pretty good. He thought it would be fun for us to take pottery together. Who knows, it might turn out to be something I'm really good at. Our first class was last Saturday and we had a really good time. The class has a total of six people. We are all very new at the world of pottery. Our instructor took us through the basics of making a simple bowl from centering the clay on the wheel, opening it up, pulling the clay and making a bowl. Sounds easy right? It sure did look easy.

I was off to a good start. I was the first one to get my clay centered on the wheel. I felt pretty good. I even got it opened without a problem. Chip was a little wobblely in the beginning but he finally got his clay centered.

Then came pulling the clay. Pulling is what you do to start making the piece you want. I was going for a simple bowl. I pulled and pulled and pulled. And lets just say, I should stick to centering the clay on the wheel. I don't know what happened but I ended up with a lopsided bowl with very thin sides. The instructor tried to help me out and save the bowl but we ended up scraping it. Chip ended up with a very pretty bowl. I think the boy just has natural talent and does good at anything creative.

Even though mine didn't turn out like I had hoped I felt pretty good about my first try. I threw another ball of clay on the wheel and set to work again. Once again, I centered very quickly, got it open and started pulling. Unfortunately, I didn't do so great with it again. Instead of ruining another pot I waited for the instructor to come by and give me some pointers. Turns out my technique was all wrong. I worked on it some more and ended up with a half way decent bowl. Chip helped me finish it off. Afterwards, we cleaned up our stations and called it a day.

I'm looking forward to this Saturday. Hopefully I haven't forgotten everything that I learned the other day. I did enjoy the class and look forward to getting better. Who knows, I might turn out to be good at this whole pottery thing. I'll never know unless I try.