Tuesday, September 27, 2011

pottery boot camp

i have been complaining a lot lately that when i throw larger pots they feel bottom heavy. i end up scrapping many of them. jeff decided i should have a pottery boot camp day. i spent the day throwing 5 -6 pounds of clay at a time with suggestions and demos from him throughout.

seems once i get to about 12" tall and go for that final pull, to get the lower half thinned out, i either go a little to far and it crashes or the bottom 1/4 is still too thick. i know i can trim them but i dislike trimming and really want to be able to throw them without the need. as soon as i destroyed one, i scrapped the clay and moved on to another. by 6:30 pm i decided to call it a day... my hands were numb and my shoulder was aching.

and a cold beer was calling my name.

on another note... we had a great weekend with our friend from NH. on Sunday morning we avoided the rain and went to the NC zoo. Roni likes the monkeys as much as i do, so we spent lots of time watching them. i was finally able to see the new baby chimp Nori.

when i was a kid i always dreamed of owning a little chimpanzee like her... she is absolutely beautiful and so much fun to watch.
back to resting my arms for the night and maybe another beer :-)

7 comments:

  1. Yep, another beer, that zoo is wonderful, a real treasure, I really like all the sculptures they have there too.

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  2. the sculptures are amazing. our friend took lots of pictures of those as well. i am so glad we live so close to the zoo.

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  3. It is the best thing to do, to refresh and re-pattern.
    Hard work though, my hands feel achey just reading about it!

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  4. baby CHIMP = cuteness indeed!
    its funny, people always push the bigger pot thing, I have never given a sh!t about it. I want to make something exquisite ......

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  5. I used to have a stuffed monkey when I was a kid, I wanted a real one soooo bad. So did Gerry. I have the same problem as you, I get a piece so high and that's it, also always bottom heavy. I finally gave up and decided if I wanted a tall piece, I would coil build it. THen I just decided I didn't want tall pieces.... good for you fro staying with it though. Practice is all it takes....and some patience :)

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  6. Gary - i was always content to work small until we started firing in wood more often.... we really need more large pots for the kiln. i know i will never make the giants that jeff does, but i would like to throw a lighter 6 -8lb pot.

    Tracey- i had a stuffed chimp that was wearing sneakers and carrying a banana, when i was a kid... i LOVED him. his name was Jocko.

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  7. That is one cute little guy!

    I like the idea of pottery boot camp. It's a good way to focus on a particular problem. I think I may use it to concentrate on some stuff I've been doing, without much satisfaction in the results.

    Thanks for the memory jog. :)

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