Pottery Lesson

I had my first pottery lesson over the weekend, and wow was it amazing! It was also much harder than it appears. I've watched Casey throw some pieces before and it looks simply effortless, but I found out very quickly that having an aerial view of the lump of clay is very different than my previously horizontal viewpoint. It's so easy to watch from the side and say, "Oh, OK, I see how that works." But when you're actually holding the clay in your hands, nothing makes sense anymore. You have no idea how anything works anymore.

My first piece went a lot easier than my second. I messed up when I was pulling the clay up on my second piece and lost a big section, but it was salvageable and it turned into what will be a cup or mug. The first piece is going to be my morning cereal bowl. I think my brain was a little fried by the time I tried the second throwing because I felt like I was having difficulties concentrating. The mental fatigue was definitely a surprise, and the time flew by! It felt like we had only been working for about an hour, but when we checked, it was closer to 3 and 1/2! Which of course explains the mental fatigue.

Props to Casey though, he's a really good teacher. I'm talking, this kid is 15 and he throws some amazingly artful and elegant pieces. He also walked me through two different pieces very patiently and calmly. Very impressive. He is not your average 15 year old. I really hope he keeps up his creative streak because I really do think he'll go far. Every time I go to visit the Harless house for some reason or another (his Mom and I are close friends on top of the fact that I love spending time with Casey's siblings, Charlie and Layla) he shows me some new technique that he's either seen at a workshop or in a YouTube video. I watched a few Sunday when I took a break from my own writing and cleaning and learned a bunch. I even googled wheels to see exactly how much one would cost, but that's definitely not an impulse buy.

I was so excited that I forgot to take pictures of my stuff so that will have to wait until I go over there again or until they're fired and I get them back!