Follow along with the fun! My 6-week
Pottery
Class Journey
Intro : class
one : two : three : four : five : six
Yer Fired! The Eyes Glazed Over...
Final Class Experience:
Until this class, I hadn't glazed a piece of fired pottery since the
third grade (wow, decades ago!), so you can imagine the anticipation I had
running through my veins.
Before we were even allowed to TOUCH the glaze, our class received an informative
lecture on pottery and glazes from the art studio's director. What a treat!
During so I learned about two types of glazes, one for decorative use only
(containing lead), and another that can be used on pottery that will be used
for eating and drinking from.The latter is the type of glaze we used.
We also learned about different techniques for applying glaze to pottery (brushing
on, dipping, swirling), and plenty of things NOT to do that could cause contamination
to a gallon bucket of glaze and/or mess up our pottery in the kiln during its
final firing. The word stalactite floated through the room during the lecture
(you know, those icicle-shaped rocky things
dripping from cavern ceilings), and I would yet learn more about their formation
after my pieces emerged from the kiln. Translation: I got a little glaze-happy.
The glazing process went off without a hitch, and I purposely mixed two colors
of glaze (a blue and cappuccino tan) in and out of my bowls, hoping they would
create a cool design effect. After class we took our
glazed pieces down to the kiln area where they were loaded for their final
step of firing. Their outcome was another anticipated surprise.
Picking Up the Pieces
A few days later I went to pick up my newly-glazed pottery bowls. The studio
director showed me what they looked like right out of the kiln, and they were
awesome, except for a few drippy glaze stalactites near the bottoms. No
problem, the director indicated as she took them over to some kind of grinder
and proceeded
to grind and smooth the excess glaze spikes off.
The final result? I proudly present my pottery pieces, the two bowls I created
with my own bare hands on a potter's wheel:
Big and small wheel-thrown pottery bowls
Top view (notice glaze color mixture)
Detail view of mixed glazes inside big bowl
Pretty cool, huh? (© 2005 Chris Dunmire) •
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