Works in Progress!

Well, I'm happy to report I'm getting into the swing of things in my micaceous pottery class. Each pot/bowl is hand built using the traditional coil method. These are all works in progress-  they still need to be scraped, sanded, burnished, slip applied & fired (whew! that's a lot of steps to go!) But I am so excited about it, I thought I'd post anyhow.

:)

Our first project was to make a bean pot. I had some trouble with shaping on this one, as the way I had learned before was to use a paddle which helps guide the clay into shape. But, we are learning the more traditional way of pot making, in which paddles are not used... only small wooden ribs. That said, I'd say my first effort wasn't too bad.

Our 2nd assignment was bowls. I had a lot of fun with this assignment, and had the time to do a few of them. I'm thinking the bowl below would work well as a rice dish, or some other sort of side dish.

Below left, a decent sized serving bowl~ perhaps for salad.

Below right, same style, only smaller.

Today the fun really began, as I had the day off & it's open studio time... so I could just go in & work on whatever I wanted. And I really wanted to work on symmetry with this new (to me) method. (After all what is a wooden rib but a tiny little paddle!) It actually went quite well, and I decided to go for an enclosed form~ which will later be a lidded pot. There is something about the roundness of this form that I find soooo appealing!

I experimented with different types of handles for the lid... but not quite coming up with something I liked, I thought what the heck... I'll use a bear for a handle! (Ha! Not surprised one bit are you?!) 

It's actually a little large for the form, & I thought about starting over & making it smaller, but then thought nope- I'll just leave it as is... perhaps it will make for an interesting piece. 

:)