Time to get "mugged"!

Another whirlwind week has gone by.  Cylinder critique went well and I definitely learned some great pointers to help me with my future throwing endeavors.  I am honestly surprised at how well the cylinders were turning out at the end!

I got to begin throwing mugs this week too!!  Anyone up for some coffee or maybe a mug o’soup?  The way my mugs are coming out so far-you will be happy to know that you will be able to have soup from them or even a big scoop of ice cream-YUM!  This is why I am still diligently working on the pull up method by trying to teach my hands to pull in and not out.  It is getting better and I hope that the rest of my mug throwing endeavor will reflect my persistence to correct my tendency to make bowls.  However, once I do get the hang of it, I wonder what my upcoming bowl endeavor will yield.  It may be interesting!

My hand building project is coming along.  The slab is made, the specs have been determined and the tools are out to play!  I am looking forward to this piece bringing “harmony” to my life with a twist! 

On a side note, I believe the timeline for some of my studio equipment being installed has been moved up to help better my throwing experiments and still allow me to be a Mom J  It will be fantabulous!   

SNOW & THROW

This week has been very interesting and exciting for me!  I have started learning to throw on the wheel.  I love it, but right now, my body is still debating! HAHA.  Here is some advice: if you have not thrown before-DO NOT do it for nine hours straight on the first time (trust me-your body will thank you).  Even though I am still pretty sore (the nine hour endeavor was on Monday), I must say that throwing is very relaxing.  I am still working on perfecting my “pull up” method and centering, but I have confidence that it will come.  Thanks to Dan, I also found out that I am a lot better at throwing backwards than normal.  Figures it would be that way, since I am a backwards individual! However, I still have to trim the pieces by ‘normal’ rotation.  Professor Man says that I will be able to train myself to trim on the same throw rotation after I get a little more experience. AWESOME. I must admit though, that I rather like being backwards-feels very natural to me! 

I have also started on my first hand building project of the semester.  I think it will turn out great!  Like me, it will be kind of ‘backwards’ too.  You lovely followers will just have to wait for more details on the one! (anxious now, aren’t we?)

Hopefully the campus will be open tomorrow (thanks SNOW) so that I may throw some more J Until next time-HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!

Over the break, I was able to get a few things accomplished with my clay projects.  We have also started reorganizing the house so that we can begin construction on my new clay studio in late spring to summer!  So exciting!

The first week of Spring ’11 has definitely been interesting!  One day missed thanks to weather already.  Between the chaos of getting back into the grind of new classes, working and family life-I am wiped and I am not close to being done with this week! 

I am extremely excited to be learning how to throw this semester!  I can’t wait to get started!  Unfortunately, I would have started already, but life sometimes gets in the way.  For starters, clay needed to be made and with only two mixers, that presents quite a time dilemma.  However, I was able to get the Tim Mather Porcelain made, even though it took me quite a bit longer to accomplish thanks to timing issues.  No worries, though.  On a side note, it is somewhat difficult to unload and clean a mixer by yourself that is almost as tall as you are!  Future reference: make sure that I do not have to make clay alone again in the future when using a big mixer! HaHa.  Besides the minimal difficulty-I am proud of my newbie abilities to get the mega-task accomplished. (pictures below) 

As for next week, I will be coming in on MLK day to begin my first throwing endeavor and I will also begin my hand building project this weekend.  GOOD LUCK TO ME!!!