pottery 4

Class 4 resulted in 4 muggish looking pieces of clay
similar in width, sides that went straight up for a while
with no wonkiness or trenching

We could talk about mushrooming, though.
And one-handed centering.

There was a different teacher, you see.
You cannot centre clay with two hands.  she said.
The clay bounces back and forth between both hands and never finds the centre.

On the spinning wheel, you get the clay wet
wedge it onto the wheel (more water)
   I am now grinning inside ... mudpuddle lady returns.  perhaps it is my superpower.
   FOCUS!
and cup your left hand close to the clay.
Your other hand is holding onto the wrist of the cupped hand for dear life,
each arm parked on legs with elbows jammed into hips.
Anchored.
Hunched over the spinning wheel.

All that jamming and anchoring so that your one hand can restrain the clay
as it wobbles in circles,
holding fast
so that the clay gradually
stops    moving.
just
spins

Thumb on top guiding it.
theoretically

So. Mushrooming.
She saw it and asked what I was doing.
Why do they ask these questions?  As though we know why the clay is doing what it is doing?  
You'll have to cut that off.

There's a way to do that too,
that has to do with anchoring, jamming elbows
and right hand gently guiding a needled instrument into the clay;
at the moment the needle touches your inside finger you pull the mushroomed clay off.
That was fun.

She proceeded to show me what my hands should be doing.
by mirroring
and then actually putting pressure on my hands and knuckles and fingers
where they should be applying pressure

the walls started to come up straight
all by themselves

Except that when I tried the second lump of clay, it wanted to do the same thing
and again.
and a fourth time.
Nothing particularly beautiful or noteworthy,
but nodding towards consistency.
A victory of sorts
to have my fingers and thumbs begin to understand how
pressure and spin
create shape and height

When the instructor saw them at the end of the class, she congratulated me.
Which one was your last one?  she asked, hopefully pointing at the most beautiful.
Certainly not.  That was the one she had helped me with.  But still!

I have decided that I like them enough to cut holes in the bottom.
Several holes. In each pot.
I have broken pots while trying to hammer holes into the bottom
when they were sold to me in some gardening store with a nice smooth uninterrupted bottom
that does a plant no good.
It yellows and shrivels in damp despair.

But if I make them with holes while the clay is soft,
then they can hold plants in the summer
as long as they both shall live.

Maybe I'll put succulents in them.  And give them away... :)
Beware the gifts of a budding potter!