Pre-Show Jitters

I have a show next weekend. They always make me a bit nervous. I don't think you can tell when talking to me but I always have a few jitters. This show, I am going to be throwing clay in public, three days of throwing.

I am ok at throwing in front of people, always have been. I remember in college having the campus cops come watch me during after hours labs. I remember this one time that I was throwing, I might have been in my second semester of pottery class, in walks a group of about 50 firemen. They were there to learn about the kiln. After they got a good look at the kiln and their lecture on when to try to put it out and when it was just still glowy from a firing and in no danger of setting the building on fire they wandered over to me.

I was sitting alone in a line of about 15 wheels throwing but now I was sitting in a line of 15 wheels surrounded by 50 firemen, 50 manly firemen all watching me... me nervous?... no lol.

Well I entertained them and humored their recollections of the potter's wheel scene from the movie Ghost. Smiled and managed not to ruin the pot I was working on. Finally their captain decided they had enough fun and called them to the trucks and off they went.

So I was introduced to throwing in public early in my throwing career and can carry on a conversation and center, lift a wall and shape. So I do fairly well demoing in public...me nervous? no lol.......

My Wheel Throwing Class Made Enrollment

The local economy has put a severe pinch on my class enrollment the last couple of sessions, so severe that they didn't meet the needed enrollment to run...sadly. But happy day, I got word that my Throwing Class has made enrollment so this week I again will be teaching Wheel Throwing at the center. I hope this the start of a upturn in the local area. Here is a photo of some work made in past sessions of my classes, there might be a few of mine in there too.

Making My Mark(s)

I lost a bead. Now this for most people is not a big deal, lots of other beads out there in the stores. But this was a particular bead, it made a particular mark when pressed into clay and now it is gone.

I hadn't realized it was missing til i needed to make that particular mark again...a request for something custom based on a previous creation. I searched high and low for that wooden oval bead, turning out shoe boxes full of odds and ends and bric and brac that make up my shelf of mark making tools looking for that bead. The bead is gone. Perhaps it rolled on the floor and was swept up as trash by someone not as understanding that a single bead can be an important tool to a potter. Perhaps it was borrowed and never brought back.

Losing a tool is like losing a friend, I'll never be able to make that exact mark again. Please a moment of silence for my bead and for all the marks it can never make again (insert silence here).

Here is a pendant that features the mark made by my bead...it was such a nice impression. So has anybody seen somewhere selling an oval wood bead that would make such a mark? I'd love to find a new bead to tuck into my shoe boxes of texture tools.

Falling for Clay

Back when I was in college I had planned on a degree in Communication and a minor in art with the goal of entering into the world of advertising. Then at some point I decided a double major in art and communications would work better. To get my degree in art I had to take a 3d medium but because of my late coming financial aid that semester the sculpture class I wanted was full. My adviser suggested ceramics as that was the only 3d class that semester with openings. Frankly I really did not want to take the class, handmade pottery was alien to me and my only memories of clay was some clay i found in my Grandma's driveway that I squished into some shape and gave it to grandma as a gift.

My teacher that semester was an adjunct as the regular professor was on sabbatical. We first covered handbuilding techniques but my eyes kept being drawn to the more advanced student on the wheel making pots, like magic the clay would rise and take form...I was hooked...I wanted to make magic too. We finally finished the handbuilding section and we got to go on the wheel. I got to admit, looking back, the first afternoon on the wheel there was very little magic made but at the time it was amazing. Clay was my calling I could tell.

As the semester continued I fell more and more in love with clay. After securing an after hours pass to the lab I could spend hours and hours on the wheel. Soon the communication degree I started out wanting became less and less important. Now I wanted that all important BFA instead of the normal BA in art. And so I finally got my BFA with a concentration in ceramics and a minor in communications. Now I one day want to head back and give grad school a try but that is going to be one day in the distant future.