Back to the wheel

Mid-autumn festival went by just like that. Heavy rain and strong winds lasted throughout the whole Sunday, perhaps the remnants of Hurricane Ike. Hence we did not see the full moon, nor did the neighbourhood kids play with lanterns. We have a box of mooncakes from Bengawan Solo which Shisheng's mum brought over. As expected, now there is only one mooncake left. It probably wouldn't last long as well.

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After some glazing setbacks, I went back to the wheel again, to lift my spirits a bit. I am happy to present the following pots! I am currently trying to practise throwing cylinders, hence all the pots you see are cylindrical, or modifications of the cylinder. Yes, it is back to basics for me!

I am pretty happy with the cut-out patterns for this vase. The cutting was done with a blade during the leather-hard stage, when the clay is not too soft and not too hard. This is actually attempt #2, coz attempt #1 was too hard by the time I tried to cut it. When it came out of the bisque kiln, one of the teachers at the studio commented that it looked really nice! Sometimes I feel that the people around here can be too generous with their compliments, but for once I felt that I deserved it!

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This mug is a little bit too round for me. Tried to trim off more, but I left it out for too long and it was too dry to trim. Boohoo. But hopefully not too dry to add the handle. I added one and propped it up with a lump of clay. I heard that if you put a wet handle on a dry pot (like in my case) there is a tendency for the handle to fall off by itself. Let's see if that is true... (keeping fingers crossed)

This is my attempt to make two identical mugs. Started out by weighing out roughly 1.5lbs of clay for each mug. (Actually no need so much one, but because I still lose a lot of clay while centering, so have to give myself more clay.) One of the mugs has a dangerously thin base (I went too deep when I made a well in the centered clay). Please please please stay intact!

Here I have added the handles and a "shoulder pad" for each mug. Well, they are not really shoulder pads. More like thumbrests, to make the mug more comfy to hold. The handles are made from a new method (for me) called "pulling the handles". It is a bit like milking a cow. Took quite a while to master, coz I keep on breaking off the clay and got a bunch of short ends instead of a long stretch of clay long enough to make a handle.

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Saw this profile in one of the Japanese pottery books in the studio, and decided to give it a try. I would say it is about 80% similar to the picture I saw. Just need to trim it a little and add a handle when it is a bit drier and it should be done.

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The fall classes are starting tomorrow. I have decided to take the morning class instead of the night class because it forces me to wake up early. Also, Tuesday evenings there is a free yoga class, so I am going to give yoga a try.