Clay Shop of Horrors

Here it is Tuesday and I’m already looking forward to Thursday! That’s because my Thursday evenings are spent in the most fabulous pottery studio. Housed there at the periphery are wheels, rows of steel shelving (for works in progress), a slab roller, a huge sink, counters sheltering 5 gallon buckets of yummy glazes, a corner with a fridge, a microwave and the much beloved tea kettle (got to have that cup of tea!), but at the center of it all is the table, that’s where all the hand building is done, and most importantly that’s where I park myself for the duration.

Now I’m not like other potters, I never really have an idea of what I want to create, I just let the clay morph and become whatever it wants to become. Some evenings I’m very productive, and others nothing seems to work out right. Lately everything that's emerged from the clay has been organic in nature, and many of pieces look like they could have been picked up off of a beach. Fun stuff!

So, last week, as in previous weeks, I started with a lump of porcelain and began to make a pinch pot.

Pinch...

Pinch...

Pinch...

Then I held it up as a prized trophy. The group offered positive platitudes, “Nice”, “Oh, I like that”, “Cool”, and so I thought “Well, its as boring as the feedback”, so I pinched some more and made a few cuts.

Pinch...

Pinch...

Cut...

Cut...

Again it was twirled for the folks in the class to view. Comments were positive, but they likened it to something J had made months ago, and I still wasn’t satisfied. So I decided to poke it instead. Maybe some texture would give it pizzazz.

Poke...

Poke...

Poke...

This time I didn’t hold it up I twirled it on the banding wheel, but the teacher noticed and commented that it looked like something out of the ocean, almost like coral. I looked at it and saw a pinch pot which had been cut, poked and prodded. So I thought, hmmm, maybe it needs some embellishing, and I started to roll out a mini coil. I was so pleased that I was able to utilize the very first pottery technique I’d learned in kindergarten, rolling snakes…but I digress.

Roll...

Roll...

Roll...

So I took the tiny coil, curled up the end, scored, slipped, and joined it to the pot. J said, "I like that!" and noted that it looked like I’d added an emerging fiddle head fern. So the conversation in the room took a twist from everything pottery to the culinary, and we chatted about eating the little fiddle heads, where the best place too buy them was and how you cooked them. And I continued to roll snakes and adhere them to the pot.

Roll... Stick on...

Roll... Stick on...

Roll... Stick on...

Until finally the piece was encircled with graduated heights of these fronds. I twirled it on the banding wheel and realized that I was starting to like it, it looked very organic, almost like a sea anemone. J and our teacher loved it, she said I should start a series of these. Then G commented, “It looks like Audrey.” And of course I was appalled, who wanted their delicate prehistoric subsea flower likened to a man-eating plant depicted in a Broadway show? Well, of course everyone agreed and although I wasn’t too thrilled, I had to concede that it did look like it could potentially take your finger off. Sigh, I guess this piece definitely morphed into what it wanted to be.

So here it is Tuesday and as I work I plot in my mind the great things I’ll do on Thursday night, knowing that as soon as I get there and sit at the table my mind will go blank and the clay will do what it wants to do. Sigh, maybe Audrey will get a baby brother.

CD