Bowls 03/21/2010
 
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I'm in the middle of trying to make matching bowl sets. It's not going so well.

I'm also in the middle of taking this Independent Study class at the Burlington City Arts place in Burlington- which is an awesome place, by the way- and one of the things that my teacher has been talking about is producing work with some consistency. It's interesting- you weigh the amount of clay you are using, take a couple of key measurements, and you should be able to spit out the same basic shape each time.

That's the theory. In practice, I spit out a shape very close to the last one but still totally different every time. We're getting there, but still....

There is something nice about making a bowl. The relationship between the potter and the work is different in claythan other mediums I've worked it. It's probably closest to the relationship I had working with glass, except I'm not in danger of losing my eyebrows to fire. Not as much, anyway. In clay I'm constantly having my ego handed to me by whatever work I'm doing. Things are going along fine, and then BAM! Everything spins out of control. Things need to be easy, smooth, and I have to really be careful to understand what the clay wants to do. Usually I can muscle materials into doing what I want them to do- clay, not so much.

I'm enjoying it, though. Making something to eat or drink out of is full of a different set of considerations, thinking about what looks good as well as what would be functionally appropriate. Not only should the rim of a cup be nice to look at, it should also feel good on the lips- can't have a sharp edge. You'd wind up with tea all over your shirt, and I would just carry that around with me for the rest of my life.

Anyway, status is this- I'm much better at getting an appropriate thickness (this means my coffee mugs are no longer 2 lbs each), though my consistency is still questionable (meaning that a matching set will look like brothers, not so much twins).
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