Warning

I don't want to upset our loyal pottery followers, but I must warn you that we do not plan on taking pottery classes during the summer months. The reasoning: we don't want to spend summer nights in a basement when we could be outside nurturing our garden. To keep you amused and to prevent the Pottery blog from going dormant, we have decided to gradually replace pottery updates with garden updates. While this post represents the first garden post, the pottery posts will continue through mid-June. Thank you for your time, we hope you enjoy.

Paula's swirl bowl

Slightly off-center, but a definite improvement over Paula's last attempt. It's hard to see from the photo, but there's a swirl stamped into the center of the bowl which glazed over well. Paula appears to have diverged from the dark glazes in her earlier pieces to softer, lighter shades. She's been focusing on throwing new pieces so you'll have to wait a little longer to see some of her new creations...

Daily Dish

Hope we aren't bowling you over with 2 new posts in one week. What do you think about the multi-color bowl? I actually like the bluish color, which is a red covered by a white, and will use it on a future piece.

Gone Bowl'ing

Now the pottery machine is churning out goodies left and right. That is literal because everything we make leans to the left or right and is not properly centered. We are still learning. This is Aaron's best bowl and largest creation to date.

The glaze came out very well except for a few imperfections where it flaked off in transit to the kiln. Not bad, getting better.

Closing Arguments

Sorry for the gap between posts. Our first class (semester) has ended and now we are waiting for the 2nd session to begin. Here is a cool cup to keep you amused. I really like the glaze job; the inside of the cup is a dark brown and the outside is much lighter. We are getting better at throwing larger items. I don't want to spoil the surprise, but there are 2 large bowls in the kiln that should be blog worthy in 2 weeks ;)

Best in Show

You shouldn't be surprised that Paula has made the nicest mug so far...

Gravy Train

Another gravy cup....

You know your pottery stinks when everyone starts asking you about the glazes you used and doesn't mention the actual pottery...

Fired Up

Here are some more glazed pieces. This cup could be a good match with one of our first finished products shown here.
This is a terrible piece that came out looking like an egg holder. The white liner glaze underneath didn't work well.

Planter

This piece has my favorite glaze job so far. This is a double dip of obsidian and it is very smooth and dark and covers lots of imperfections. This piece is also a fine example of a well-pulled handle. Don't ask how to pull a handle. I will show you this image clipped from JH Pottery Tutorial and you can get the picture of the general technique.


A good glaze job on a holy piece of pottery.

Does anyone need a planter?

Goals

Where do we look for inspiration? A few years ago our friend Paul started taking pottery lessons and we witnessed his evolution from beginner to expert potter. I haven't seen any of his recent work, but I'm sure he has achieved grand-master status by now! The bowl pictured is a gift he made for us and it sits on our coffee table. It usually holds a pen, the keys to our mailbox and a letter opener, but for official guests it is emptied and displayed in its purest form.I don't know how long it will be until either of us can make a bowl this smooth and symmetrical, but we keep on trying. It may be even longer until we figure out how to put a cool swirl glaze on our pottery.

Another source for our artistic inspiration has been the artwork we have seen in our travels. We really enjoy mosaics and ceramic tilework. The mosaic pictured was not at the Alhambra, but it is available here. Recently, a NYT article suggested that medieval Muslim artists had found patterns for their mosaics that were solutions to mathematical puzzles that have only recently been solved. Here is a link to the original Science article titled "Decagonal and Quasi-Crystalline Tilings in Medieval Islamic Architecture".