i have finally gotten all of my 6 week beginner course pottery pieces back yaaaaaay! half of them ended up in a firing when the heating element broke so the glazes got a bit messed up and we do have two small cracks at the bottom of two of them BUT nothing totally exploded so that's a win. please enjoy my photos and rankings of everything i made below, from least to most favourite
8. coil pot
i did not enjoy the process of making a coil pot, i didn't have enough time to make it high enough to actually be a useful functional vessel, and it's wonky in a way that i do not find charmingly handmade and it instead just looks like a child made it. i do think the glaze has potential but ultimately i think it still has to be at the bottom. i told my mum this and she got sad and said she liked it so she's getting it for her birthday
7. kurinuki snake rock sculptural thing
i initially started out just carving a cool rock with a smooth indent at the top with the intention of it being a tealight candle holder or something, but then i finished with too much time, and made the mistake of deciding to add a snake that i absolutely did not have time for wrapped around it. i like the vision here but after i decided on the snake i was rushed at every stage - the snake didn't have enough detail at the sculpting stage and trying to glaze it was a nightmare so the glaze is super patchy. i've decided to pretend the glaze was intentional and the snake is meant to be slowly merging with the rock or something. this guy is hollow but he still got a crack in the bottom because i didn't make it hollow ENOUGH. was fun to make (minus the rushing) though, kurinuki is very satisfying, so it is saved from last place
6. slab mug
in my open studio sessions i've been playing around with slabs more and have come to appreciate them. i have a more rounded slab mug that i need to glaze soon that i'm quite excited about. HOWEVER during the lesson we did on slabs we didn't have any way to make our slabs uniform, i spent like an hour rolling the clay out and it was still uneven, and i ended up with a super thin base that meant i couldn't dry the handle upside down like you're usually meant to. also the glaze came out ugly except for where it pooled to a cool turquoise. BUT! it is my first ever handle and i feel a bit of fondness for it just for that
5. wheel thrown pot
i think this was the second thing i ever threw on a wheel? it's a bit wonky but i could have forgiven that, unfortunately during the second firing it got a crack on the very bottom AND also the glaze came out patchy in spots - not sure whether that was because of this being affected by the kiln breakage or i just messed up when i dipped it? i really love the way the blue in the bottom inside of the colour shines though
4. wheel thrown mini cup
this guy was the FIRST thing i ever threw on the wheel (that successfully made it off the wheel in one piece), so fondness points right away. he's super tiny because i kept rubbing too much clay away by accident because i didn't know what i was doing. a lil wobbly but cute. i love how deep and smooth this glaze is BUT unfortunately, it was another victim of the broken kiln, which contributed to it running and leaving these dribbly spots. i actually think the dribbly bits look super cool when you have the cup sitting down on a surface buuuut unfortunately it doesn't look great when you pick it up and can see sanded-off glaze bits. still i think he looks cool
3. wheel thrown funky cup
this was another wheel thrown one but i got a lil funky with the shape and the glaze! it was fun to do something a bit different. definitely my most even cup. bf has started using this one for tea
2. pinch pot
this was my VERY FIRST EVER POT! pinch pot! i honestly think it's so cute. i think the glaze came out well, it's quite pleasantly smooth all the way round, it's got that the slight bumpiness makes it feel rustic. pinch pots i'm sorry i doubted you when they said we were doing you for our first lesson, you too can be beautiful
1. wheel thrown bowl
this was the last wheel thrown thing i made, they didn't tell us an actual technique for making bowls so i was just winging it but i was really happy with how the shape of this came out! would be great for holding little nuts or something. AND i like the glaze too, photos don't capture it entirely accurately but it's a really lovely warm kinda rust red and i think it looks cool against the contrast of the unglazed clay.
aaaaand that's everything from the 6 week course! i've got a slow conveyor belt of pieces piling up that are at various stages from my open studio now that i'm free to do my own stuff and experiment with different shapes and techniques, so expect more pics of that in the future
