We survived pottery bootcamp!

We headed off to the Haliburton School of Arts last Sunday for 5 long days of throwing class taught by Rene Pettijean.

Rene spiral wedging clay

Key step in opening clay in preparation for raising the wall

  













Aside from the incredibly hot weather, which translated into an equally incredibly hot pottery studio, it was a great 5 days of revisiting the basics of throwing on the wheel. There were 16 of us, all at varying stages in our pottery "careers".  We were challenged by Rene to use some discipline in throwing the same sized/shaped objects - discipline that I don't normally practice!  (Throwing is too much fun to be disciplined about it). We got lots of demos by Rene and one-on-one assistance when requested.  The group was very interactive and ready to constructively share their experiences.

Setting a rim on a jar.

Throwing the top of a 9 lb vase

One of many things I learned was that I don't plan my throwing projects well enough.  Using Fibonacci numbers we were asked to design mugs, throw them, & attach handles.

5 bisqued souvenirs from bootcamp

Above are the 5 I put handles on out of 9 cylinders I started with.  The shape on the far right is what I started with, then I redesigned to the shape on the left and tried a few small variations (really - these didn't just "happen").  Turns out, I liked the original version the best once the handles went on! When I got home I redesigned the shape on the left to flare out a bit at the base to balance out the form and will try to throw a few of these.  These handles were pulled, then attached to the mugs and pulled some more - I let mine dry out too much so the handles are pretty wonky, but it was certainly good practice.  Many, many pots went straight into the pug mill so that we could reuse the clay the next day - it was kind of refreshing to "kill" so many pots!