Not a Harry Potter (or even a Hairy Rotter) but a card carrying maker of ceramic vessels. I swear I feel about a heartbeat from selling all my crap and moving to a commune in the mountains to do nothing but make pots. Well, not really, but I think you get the idea that I'm really diggin' it. I've had the conversation w/a number of my friends that work in similar fields as I that we miss working with our hands; actually making something instead of just thinking about shit. And I also figured out that I miss making art, whatever that may be. It doesn't feel like I'm doing anything real when I'm designing a web site or a business card or some shit like that on the computer, it's all ether. Someone turns off a server and POOF it's gone. The part of pottery that I really like is it is (in many cases) a useful thing. You can put stuff in it, or drink/eat off of it, or grow something in it. Or you can give it to a friend and they can look at it and think "My what a nice thing!" or "My what a piece of crap, but I had better keep it because so-and-so gave it to me... I wonder what so-and-so is up to???"
So Pojo commented that he thought it would be interesting to see what I'm up to. Fool!
This is the ceramics studio at the University of Washington. Actually what you see there is the outside part where all of the gas kilns are. There are about 5 throwing wheels out there and I have found that it is quite pleasant working outside (even when it is god damned hot!) All the students are very cool people and are more than willing to chat and give some advice and tips. Centering the clay on the wheel has been a major hurdle but I'm getting much better now that I'm using stoneware. IMHO the porcelain is much tougher to work with.
Here is a bowl I made, not very exciting I know but it's going to hold something at some point that may be!
We had an assignment to create a pouring vessel. Here you see the parts for the 3 that I made with varying degrees of success. Notice the bottoms, lids and spouts haven't been trimmed yet but all these parts were thrown on the wheel.
Here are the finished pots sitting out to dry. The long spout separated while drying but I'm trying to fix it. We'll see if it works, the TA gave it about a 35% chance.
Last Wednesday we did Raku. It was cool to watch. This is when the lid of the raku kiln was lifted and all the red hot pots were then dumped into garbage cans filled w/newspaper. The fire and carbon creates the cool effects in the glazes that raku ware is known for.
Here is some other raku ware for your viewing pleasure.
And finally here are a few things I just went in and made for myself. (The class is moving slowly, to slow for my liken's so I'm kinda going off in my own direction.)
These are the two largest things I've made so far and I'm pretty happy with them. The walls of the pot are pretty thin and I didn't have to do too much trimming. They are still a little bottom heavy but I'm told that takes awhile to master.
This is a little pot with a lid. By letting the pot get a little too dry before trimming you get that nice rough outer edge. I also like that the only thing smooth on the pot is the handle (you put a little wet paper towel around the two pieces of clay that you attach so they don't separate while drying). I think I may only glaze the inside and the lid, but we'll see...
