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| Not feeling it... |
There are days where I can't throw. Throwing is like playing a sport or instrument; the longer I go without practicing, the more I need to catch up to get good again. Well it's been a while since I've just sat down and thrown a few vessels and well, it didn't turn out so great as you can see! My problem is that I like to throw thin and I don't think I was taking enough time to center my clay perfectly before making my cups and they were off center. Even if you are just the tiniest bit off center while throwing thin, your cup will begin to wobble and it can quickly become a disaster. However, these were good warm ups for me as I was really intending to throw a new body for my urn that was previously destroyed (note a previous
blog where I showed a failed urn that I had made for those who don't remember). The picture on the bottom shows part of my urn that I had thrown (the large one closest to the camera on the left). This is one of two damp boxes that I made earlier this week which took 2 hours to make! It will make my life so much easier since I won't have to run the risk of potentially ruining a pot by covering it with plastic and these pieces will stay wet longer in the damp box then covered by plastic. A longer drying period is essential for more difficult pieces where I attach clay, such as handles, and need more time for the clay to dry evenly so nothing cracks. You can see from this picture that this is the stage of clay before I trim the bottoms. Trimming will take away much of the excess clay and I can really define edges and clean up the surface when the clay is leather hard.
There are days where I can't throw. Throwing is like playing a sport or instrument; the longer I go without practicing, the more I need to catch up to get good again. Well it's been a while since I've just sat down and thrown a few vessels and well, it didn't turn out so great as you can see! My problem is that I like to throw thin and I don't think I was taking enough time to center my clay perfectly before making my cups and they were off center. Even if you are just the tiniest bit off center while throwing thin, your cup will begin to wobble and it can quickly become a disaster. However, these were good warm ups for me as I was really intending to throw a new body for my urn that was previously destroyed (note a previous blog where I showed a failed urn that I had made for those who don't remember). The picture on the bottom shows part of my urn that I had thrown (the large one closest to the camera on the left). This is one of two damp boxes that I made earlier this week which took 2 hours to make! It will make my life so much easier since I won't have to run the risk of potentially ruining a pot by covering it with plastic and these pieces will stay wet longer in the damp box then covered by plastic. A longer drying period is essential for more difficult pieces where I attach clay, such as handles, and need more time for the clay to dry evenly so nothing cracks. You can see from this picture that this is the stage of clay before I trim the bottoms. Trimming will take away much of the excess clay and I can really define edges and clean up the surface when the clay is leather hard. 
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