One of the best aspects of my retirement, has been sharing my love of pottery with others. The last year, I have been offering pottery lessons as well as single night ceramic workshops at my home studio. With the new year, maybe you would like to add some relaxing creativity to your schedule, and here are a couple of ideas to do that.
One of the workshops has been through the Prescott Community Center. This workshop is a 6 week project oriented class. Each week, students work on a new project. They have made mugs, bowls, plates, and butter dishes. All of which have been beautiful and unique. The great thing about pottery, in particular hand building, is you can make a professional looking piece, with no
experience. This spring, I will be offering two more workshops through Prescott. Once Prescott has the new catalog up, I will add a link.
On my website, I am offering an 8 week, 16 hours , pottery lessons. Currently, two of my students have both challenged me in very different ways. I have one young woman who is a freshman in high school. She is an artist, and combining that with her pottery, she has produced some really wonderful pieces. She has challenged me to be more artistic in my own glazing, and take more time in the final process. I love throwing, but glazing, which can be the make or break it of pottery making, has always been the worst part. I can make a beautiful pot, only to ruin it with my glazing.
My other challenger is a gentleman, who is left handed. I have been teaching pottery, off and on, since college, some 30 years now. I have never had a left handed person – or if I did, I didn’t know. Only recently have pottery wheels been able to go both directions – clock wise and counter clock wise. You could buy Shimpos way back then, which went both directions, but they were very expensive. As I am learning, people who are left handed are better suited to work on a wheel that turns clockwise, rather than counter clock wise – which most of us right handed folks use. I have to think twice when trying to help, and even with that,
some times I still don’t get it right!For me, throwing, at this point, is pretty much second nature. I don’t really think about what I am doing, I just do it. Despite the challenge, and my help, he has made some really gorgeous pots.
Another workshop which has been popular is “Make a Fairy House” or ” Make a Toad House“. If your neighborhood toads and fairies are homeless, this is the workshop for you!
The other day I found myself making some piggy banks, and it got me to thinking…who ever thought of the idea of a piggy bank? Thank goodness, for the internet, with answers to questions at our finger tips.
The piggy banks I made, started with 24 ounces of clay. From the original size, clay shrinks a lot more than you would expect – about 20% from start to finish. The original bodies of the pigs were about 8 inches long – the final bodies were about 6 inches long! After they are slowly dried for a day or two, legs, ears and eyes are added, giving them each their individual character. A slot is added on their back for money to be deposited, and a hole cut in their belly for withdrawals.
