Trimming

Trimmed my bowl...partly. I had to leave class early today for skiing. Luckily the half hour (or less) is a good block of time to trim thrown objects. The base of the bowl was very chunky. As explained earlier, this is something that needs work. I should be able to finish trimming the bottom some other time, and then put in the divots in the lip for chopstick rests...

Throwing With One Hand

Yesterday (the 28th) I sketched out a bowl that I wanted to make on the wheel. The goal was to have it be fairly lightweight, although I'm not sure I achieved that. The sketch of the bowl featured small divots in the rim to act as chopstick rests.

The title here refers to the fact that I sprained my thumb skiing on friday. It's feeling a little better now though. Yesterday when I was making the bowl I was able to use my left hand, and the fingers of my right hand. I'm getting used to how clay works as I keep making things. I feel like I need to practice making tall things because many times the base of my piece is extremely heavy and the rim is very thin. If I could somehow move the thickness of the bottom upwards...

At this point I'm remembering how my friends would always start a piece. When centering they would flatten down the clay and then push it into a cylindrical tower. They would start to create the piece once they had their clay centered and in tower form. They did this presumably so that they wouldn't run into the same trouble that I am having.

As for how the bowl turned out... It was heavy on the bottom, thin on the top, and I havn't added the chopstick notches yet. They will be easy to add at any time. I will probably also thin the bottom when I trim it.

Starting Off

Welcome to my Ceramics Independent Study blog. During the first class period I went to use the ceramics room and found Robert teaching Earth Science. This is unfortunate, but nothing to worry about. I'll end up working on my own most of the time anyways. I reintroduced myself to the wheel and made a cup and then made a plate-dish thing that didn't work. It didn't work because I made the center opening too far down so that when I cut it off the wheel there was a hole in the bottom.

I talked to Robert for a little while after class and he agreed to turn up the heat for me at lunch so that it would be a comfortable temp for sixth period.

During the second period, I worked primarily on researching ceramics. I found one website that had information on making plaster from clay, sand, flour, and straw. Another website had information on making clay bricks. Apparently, for bricks, the clay is softened, then coated in sand, formed with a sanded mold, then dried and fired in a kiln. The firing is at low temp until the water is gone, then it is a high temp.

Things to do:
Acquire clay from a local place
Make a clay bowl on the wheel