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Pottery Camp Day 1: Creating Cups
Pottery Camp: Throwing on the Pottery Wheel
What a great week last week. I had two amazing students come in for two hours wednesday through saturday improving on their pottery skills at Pottery Camp. Both students have previously worked in clay but wanted to focus more on the pottery wheel. The first day we focused on centering and coning the clay. This is an essential part of throwing on the pottery wheel. After a few warm ups, the girls began opening up the ball of clay to create cup forms. After opening up the clay, they made sure to compress the base to prevent s-cracks!
The girls did an excellent job at throwing on the pottery wheel. They quickly controlled the clay from opening up too wide and created a pair of very nice cups! While the cups were drying, we practiced pulling handles and created few with and without textures. Once the cups dried to leather hard stage, we attached handles by scoring and adding slip to the joints. We took twisted fishing line to add unique texture to the cups base. What a way to finish off their pots. Awesome day 1 to Pottery Camp!
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a Potter’s Thanks
Life isn’t always cheerful.
I read the news to find out one of my favorite comedians is gone. Watch world events unfold and notice other countries living in fear, then I simply looked at my checking account for the cherry on top. I won’t bog the internet down with a sermon or a daily list of all I should be grateful for, but it is important I think of one thing today. There are many things I will eventually show my gratitude for but now I start with… food. I love breakfast! I don’t know why but the salty taste of sausage with melted cheese adds a little bit of sunshine no matter what. My wife is moving towards healthier options like whole grain english muffins instead of white bread and adding a green drink to our morning mix. I admit that use to be a part of my routine when I ran, but now I just run to my local hamburger joint. Which I add, it is noted on their sign that “our cows are vegetarians so we don’t have to be!” I still hold fast to that policy but it definitely doesn’t hurt to add more greens to my diet. A green drink recipe my wife gave me actually tastes pretty good.
1 part apple 1/2 cucumber handful of spinach 1 cup of waterI threw that into our Vitamix blender and boom! It didn’t taste bad, quite refreshing actually. Luckily, my morning cup of coffee and breakfast sandwich were not too far behind. While my coffee was brewing i put some sausage on the skillet, along with an egg and cooked up the main course. Watching cheddar cheese melt over the hot egg is like ringing the dinner bell for me. After eating and giving thanks for my food, I went back into the refrigerator and noticed I can do it all over again tomorrow. And for that, I’m a little more cheerful.
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Pottery Project
Hello again! I want to show off students who develop their pottery wheel skills with me. Together, this student and I created an individualized pottery project to help meet her goals. She wanted to make a large piece of pottery but couldn’t control more than a few pounds of clay on the potters wheel. This hour and a half lesson allowed her to craft four pieces on the wheel and attached them together to make a large vase. Coils were attached around each segment and smoothed out to create this clean lined vessel.
Students with growing skills ask for more challenging projects 
Advanced projects are created to develop your growing skills. 
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Summer Clay Camp
Early this summer I hosted a clay camp for a small group of five students. We made slab vases, coiled bottles, and a number of pieces on the pottery wheel including ugly mugs!!! As you can see, they had a great time while learning new techniques. I’m very grateful I had the opportunity to work with these great girls.
Pottery Summer Camps
