By now, the class is in full swing with some of your bisque-fired items showing up on the student shelves. Keep them moving and find space if you can, by rotating your finished, dry greenware on the correct shelves for the Bisquer to load and fire. Ideally we should have enough room on our Thursday section of the class shelves. Remember, the very top space is for everyone to share – especially for tall pieces that don’t fit in your cubby holes.
Darryl shared throwing miniatures – a great way to practice your throwing techniques. There is a lot of repeatable steps that many of us settle into when we throw and by repeating steps that become comfy for us, they become second nature and automatic in our production. You’ll then realize more creative experimenting, rather than concentrating on how to throw.
Here’s a quick 3.5-minute video of a potter that I enjoy checking out – Matt Horne. He does a lot of closed forms and fires some amazing Crystalline work. in this video, he throws about one-a-minute off the hump below.
I also did a very quick demo of throwing off the hump last week. Again, everybody goes through the steps a little different and you’ll find your own repeatable patterns. The main thing is to keep throwing and exploring your designs. The attached is a “7 minute” video of Bill Van Gilder (he uses a modified Shippiki with a stick to cut off), but it actually ends at about 5.5 minutes:
Darrell demo’d researching something you like and copying it to increase your skills. I was sent this pic from Lara asking about how it’s done, and I will do my version of it in class.
And finally, referencing the practice of repeatability. we both did our versions of handles for mugs. There’s a saying I heard that a potter doesn’t get comfortable with pulling handles until he/she does thousands of them.. and even then it’s not so much comfort level as it is “acceptance” of the final product. Here’s 4 minutes for your entertainment:
As always, have fun! See you in class!