Success and Inspiration

The tape is off!  I'm no longer adorned with flourescent-colored therapy tape.  I even threw for the first time in a long time on Wednesday without wearing gloves.  (The jury is still out on whether I like using bare hands or gloved hands better, though.)  Physical therapy is helping, and I think I'm starting to heal.  Of course, my first impulse is to abuse the wrist enough to determine if I'm really 100% or if it's weak, so I'm trying to still be ginger. 

I spent most of Wednesday night trimming the bowls that I threw last weekend.  I got a little refresher lesson in how to place a foot and how to even it out to be level.  The act of trimming is so fun for me.  Take a leather-hard pot, apply a sharp tool, and see trimming fly around as you spin the wheel.  Something about making a big pile of clay bits makes me feel productive.

When I made these platters, I tried a technique Cary had demonstrated:  throwing a cylinder and then pulling the walls down to make a "bowl"/platter.  (Plate or platter is probably more accurate than bowl, since the bottom is flat and not round it isn't REALLY a bowl...but it's a 'bowl' class, so we'll stretch the definition a bit.)

This platter is the largest thing I've thrown this year so far.  As I made it I already decided how I'd be glazing it, an unusually prepared thing for me to do.  It's white stoneware with blue slip painted along the flat bottom with a bit of texture which will catch the glaze.  I also indented all along the rim to make a bunch of little grooves; those will also catch the glaze to settle thickly.  This will be what's quickly becoming my 'signature' glaze - Ben's Amber.  It's usually used as an oxidation glaze, but in the standard reduction kiln, it is a neutral tan/brown that's a bit translucent, allowing design and texture to show through.  In areas where it's thicker it has a blue tone or hue, so I think the slip at the bottom of the platter will compliment it really well. 

On another note, I got a Groupon email today with a side-offer of discounted admission to CraftBoston Spring the weekend of March 25th-27th.  It's a show at the convention center in Boston, and there will be over 200 craftspeople showing and selling their work.  There will be folks who work in various media, not just clay, but I'm tickled to go; I really think I could get a lot of ideas on how to alter and decorate my pots. 

Now that I'm getting a bit more confident in my throwing abilities, I really need to start considering how to 'make them mine'.  I emailed a few friends to see if folks would be interested in attending (if you're reading and would like to go, let me know!)

The next semester will start at Mudflat in April, so I've been looking at class schedules to decide which one I want to take.  I wanted to take another class with Cary, but he's only going to be teaching one class during mornings on a work day, so that's probably not going to happen.  I am considering the "Altering Thrown Forms" class with Wayne.  I've been amazed to watch folks take something round and end up with an oval casserole...and I have a feeling that's just the beginning.  I tell you, the more pottery I do, the more I realize there is yet to learn. 

I'm planning a marathon pottery day this Saturday.  I can't wait to glaze some bisqued pots, clear off my shelf, and make way for some more!

Months of activity, now finally a post

I was just almost embarassed to realize how long it's been since I've posted to my blog (not for Rachel's lack of trying to motivate me). 

It's been a big few months.  I finished my degree (yay!) in December, and it was awarded in January.  Although I went to my graduation as an undergrad, I've never actually seen my BA degree.  I was always afraid to pick it up and lose it between moves, given my transient lifestyle moving around to new addresses in Boston every 9-12 months.  It felt safer to leave it in the coffers of the university, to be picked up at a later state when I was at a more stable place in life.  Needless to say, I was ecstatic when BU actually mailed my pretty, printed degree to me.  I opened it, texted my friends and family, then promptly did with it what every good student does with their school-related successes:  I hung it on the refrigerator! 

In a fit of  'need to get fit' I also attempted a boot camp class in October.  It's one of those intense, intimate instructor-to-student ratio, kick-your-butt classes that mix cardio, strength training and core workouts three mornings a week to 'start your day off right'.  I accomplished losing some sleep, sweating a lot...and injuring my right wrist.  I assumed all would be good after a few days of rest and ignored it.  Finally, when I could no longer shampoo my hair with my dominant hand nor lift a jar of pickles from the kitchen cabinet, I went to my doctor then to a hand surgeon.  I was told to ingest large volumes of Advil (R) and wear the most uncomfortable wrist brace ever.  I was also given a prescription for physical therapy, which having never done, I quickly dismissed as overly time-consuming and a nice idea, but hardly effective.

I spent the holidays in Boston for the first time ever, and used my short work weeks at the end of the year to catch up on rest...and do not much else.  This last few months I've been very work-centric, but after a few months of hiatus I also re-enrolled in pottery class.  I'm taking a class called, "Bowls, bowls, bowls."  I'll bet you can't guess what we're all working on...

My first night back at the studio I picked up my first 25lbs of clay...and realized why I should have 'dealt with' that wrist of mine.  Although I'd grown quite comfortable washing my hair and doing a myriad other things with my left hand, I couldn't do everything with it, and carrying clay weight HURT.  Once I threw a chunk of clay down on the wheel, I realized that everything about throwing even the smallest lumps of clay also hurt.  The first step in throwing is to center the clay on the wheel.  That usually means spinning it around and applying a greater amount of force towards the clay as centrifugal force from it is applying away from the center of the wheel...with the heel of your dominant hand.  So much for my goal to get back into making big platters and bowls!

Shortly after that first class, I scrounged through my 'important papers' pile to find that physical therapy prescription and decided to give it a whirl.  I went for my first consultation at Pro Sports Therapy and ended up with this snappy, new accessory:

I was advised to 'listen to my wrist' and avoid anything too strenuous or unnecessarily pressure-intensive.  When asked for clarification they did, in fact, advise against throwing clay.  Determined not to let mere physical injury interrupt my hobby, I decided during "overnight clay" in February that I needed to learn how to throw with my left hand.  At 3:00am, amped up on coffee (and a bit of margarita), I decided to take every impulse I had to throw and reverse it to try doing it with my other hand. 
This was the result.


 So...it's not quite round.  It resembles a bowl, it was made from more than 2 lbs. of clay, and I did the 'work' with my left hand (finger-L for dramatic effect and memory facilitation).  That bowl took me about 30-45 minutes to throw.  The pure amount of water necessary to keep my hands from drying out was probably a big factor in why it got so off-kilter and collapsed.  Skills regression aside, though, it proved to me that it would be possible to 'start over' learning to throw and get to a point where I could be proficient with that left hand.  I left the studio the next morning with renewed dedication. 

Within the next few weeks I decided to drop the pottery class and spend the money, instead, on private lessons with one of the instructors and studio potters who is left-handed.  I needed some focused attention in order to re-learn how to do everything.  Instead, the staff suggested that I stick it out with Cary and let him show me how he'd worked through a (dominant) right wrist injury in the past.  I acquiesced.  I've been pleasantly surprised and am very glad to have given it a shot.  Cary has dedicated time to specifically show me how to do his demos "the other way around" and I've happily been able to make some things that are respectable, at least. 

Here's looking forward to an exciting rest-of-semester of healing and left-handed prowess.  More updates to come!