I am looking forward to my next ceramics class - continuing with wheel throwing. Class starts up again this week (once we are through all the cancellations and delays due to the bitter cold). All good stuff - learning something new, making something beautifully long-lasting and practical and (my favorite part) sharing time and conversation centered on creativity. I am so grateful to have the very talented artist and teacher Soyong Kang Partingon as my instructor. For local friends considering a ceramics class - Soyong teaches at our local Sullivan Munce Cultural Center and also at the Indianapolis Art Center.
I thought about taking classes for years and have been so happy that I finally did it. I have been inspired by these ceramics classes in so many ways. I have truly loved being home with the boys for many years and really enjoy freelancing from home, but I have really missed the creative buzz that happens in learning something new in the physical presence of other people who are very interested in doing the same.
The blue bowl above is a favorite from last class. I like the practicality of the wide shallow dimensions and hope to produce a few more like it. Before this it was mostly cat size bowls - and that was before I had a cat. I now have so much appreciation for what goes into making something out of clay. There is much time invested in following a piece through each step of throwing, drying, trimming, embellishing, firing, glazing and firing again. In the end there is this thoughtfully produced object, both beautiful and practical that will likely long outlast me. I really like that.
I would like to eventually think about a relationship between cloth and bowl or cloth and vessel - lots of possibilities there. Goals for this class - maybe four good size bowls of a very similar size and shape possibly resembling a set. That would be really nice. Also maybe a pie plate, we like pie.
wonder what that would look like...the relationship between cloth and vessel I mean, the photo of the two up above looks like a successful engagement, the complentary colours, the natural elements in both designs, the contrast in textures; it IS good to be amongst creative likeminded folks, good for you to get back into the thick of it
ReplyDeleteI thought I might make one with the other in mind and vice versa. It's entirely possible this might be one of my over-planned ideas : ) ,to develop them so related from the start.
DeleteI think participating in Jude's online classes, and feeling the energy there definitely gave me the momentum to try some new things. There are so many wonderful opportunities out there. It's always a good time to learn something new.
i always wanted to do pottery, the only bowl i made was in high school. i love the connection here.
ReplyDeleteI have had a bit of hand building here and there but these classes are my first tries on the wheel. I am hooked.
Deletesuch a lovely bowl ---& with the cloth.
ReplyDeletei too am a student of judes. i spent years making pots, but haven't touched clay in probably 12 years. last nite i had a dream about clay--wedging it --but in the dream i couldn't remember the word wedging so i used the word kneading--telling folks that actually kneading was to incorporate air--that wedging ( which i couldn't remember) was moving the air out. a friend wanted to learn to throw so she could take a flat thrown piece & pleat it for a skirt for a figure. moving through the class picking up all the small pieces to recycle, saying we don't waste anything.
& then i wake up & am led by jude to this post.
some serious food for thought. thank you susan & jude.
Hi! I have heard people say "snail" the clay too. : )
DeleteThere's nothing quite like taking your meal from a bowl you have made yourself, especially if it's resting on a cloth you have also had a hand in....and have grown the food. The thought of that combination is deeply satisfying
ReplyDeleteHi, India. I do love the thought of everything working together like that. It certainly enhances the act of eating.
DeleteHi I have just followed the link from Jude's blog. I am mostly a tapestry weaver and have been trying to incorporate ceramics into my work. I have not had much success yet but I am still working on it. I have an idea that when I have time am going to follow up on.
ReplyDeleteHi Debbie. I have found it requires a lot of patience, which is not my strong point. I am still working towards predictable results. : )
DeleteWow! How great for you :) I love the contrasting in the pic...the colors, the hard & soft...nice. I took pottery in Jr. high and again about 14 years ago. I had to stop when my elbow would no longer let me work the clay. I never got very good on the wheel, that "centering" thing that I seem to always work on (not just with clay lol). I did a lot of hand building and adding marbles or beach glass in the second firing. So much fun. There is a new pottery studio opening right near me and it makes me wistful :)
ReplyDeleteWhen I read "cloth and bowl"...my first thought was a bowl with openings that you could weave fabric through...a sort of basket bowl. It of course would not hold cereal!! haha
but, it could have the cloth woven in and then extending out, hanging down on to the table surface. hard to type what I'm seeing. Maybe picture part of the cloth under your blue bowl woven into it! I love the fossil design you did there too. Have fun.
That's a lovely idea, Nancy - actually weaving the cloth in and out of openings cut in the clay. I am enjoying hearing that so many have been drawn to clay. : )
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