Pottery 101 - Night 4

We're at the halfway mark of our 8 week class. I think tonight, Michelle and I both did very well and had our own respective breakthroughs. I figured out how to make a pot with a bottom that isn't proportionally way too heavy, and Michelle had a fantastic night with trimming her already thrown pottery. We were even told that we didn't have to worry about our mid-term grade and that we pass. :) The bad news is that we didn't glaze anything tonight. The good news is that I think I have a time table for when we get to finally see some finished work. Assuming our pieces are bisque fired this week, (bisque firing is the first of two firings, and is done to prepare the piece for glazing and the second firing) then we'll be able to glaze next week. If that happens, then I anticipate we'll see something finished in early September. *fingers crossed* I can't speak for Michelle, but I for one would like to take another round of this class to solidify the things I've learned, and have the opportunity to make a few more things, with perhaps a bit more freedom. So far, I'm having a good time with it. I mentioned last week that I'd like to focus on throwing taller cylinders, and so the piece I threw tonight was just that. I tried for another tall, straight cylinder. It would have been my tallest yet, but I ended up pulling the wall too thin and lost about 2 inches of height as a result. No harm done though, because it still made a decently sized piece. I'm doing better gauging the width of my walls at the base of the piece, but I still have to take considerable time to make sure I don't make a mistake and mess up what I'm working on. Bill (our instructor) will walk past and hold a finger above the piece after a glance at the walls. This finger indicates how tall the piece WOULD be if I were getting the excess width out of the base. As I said though, tonight I think I sort of got it. It should come a little easier next time. Anyway, more to come next week! -J