Have you watched the Ice Cream Bowl Throwdown video we posted yesterday? They make it look easy, don’t they?
Don’t make me laugh.
My name is George. I do the blogging here at The Art League. Blogging, while requiring a certain amount of creative output, isn’t really a “fine art.”
So we thought it would be fun for me to leave my comfy spot behind this keyboard and try my hands at the potter’s wheel. I have returned to share what I learned. Full disclosure: I don’t know what I’m talking about. But I can recommend the ceramics jumpstart class this fall if you want more reliable information.
My teacher was Tiffany Scott (bronze medalist in the throwdown) who works in The Art League School and teaches ceramics to summer art campers — her patience with young pupils would prove useful during my lesson.
Day 1: We wedged the clay to prepare it for the potter’s wheel. It vaguely reminded me of kneading bread. Then we skillfully plopped our raw material on the wheel and I learned how to center it, open it up, and shape the sides — but not for long. Suddenly, somehow, my developing bowl became an unwieldy, floppy mass. The clay could be recycled, though.
Bowl Two was a similar story. It fell apart at the sides.
Bowl Three went wrong, too, but with lots of help from Tiffany, we salvaged it into a mini-bowl. A success, in my book.
Read on for the rest of the story! Continue reading Bowled Over: A Blogger Tries Pottery