Don’t throw that!

Hi there! Story time…

So a few years ago I took a class in college called Empty Bowls and the aim of the class was to make enough ceramic bowls to host a community-wide fundraiser at the end of the semester in order to raise money to fight hunger.  There were a few options of the method you could used to make your bowls… you could hand-build them, cast them with slip, or throw them on the wheel.  Naturally, I chose the one she cautioned us the most against: throwing.  She warned that it took the most time to learn and that we would have to put in some serious hours to meet the bowl-production quota.  She didn’t scare me off, however, and I instantly fell in love.

I was simultaneously supposed to be working on my architecture thesis (you know… the things I was getting a degree in) but I found myself spending more and more time in the pottery studio.  Where I felt anxious and overwhelmed doing architecture, I felt calm and alive when I was throwing.  Where I felt out-of-place in lobby pin-ups and theory lectures, I felt at home with clay in my hands and glaze by my side. I must admit, I wasn’t great from the get-go… I had to practice a ton and even so, I made some technically terrible pots…

But we made it through the semester and I even surpassed my bowl quota. We had a successful fundraising event and (not to brag….) a lot of my bowls were even chosen near the beginning!

 

To explain, in order to attend the event you had to purchase a ticket in advance.  Then, on the night of the event people started lining up at the door over an hour before we were going to start! This was serious business people.  When the doors opened, everyone filed in and passed a table coved in the bowls we had made.  Each person got to choose one bowl off the table and then continued on to the soup table, where they would get to choose a soup to eat out of their new bowl.  After they finished eating there was a washing station where they could rinse out their bowls and take them home!  All-in-all it was a pretty good deal.  We got to learn a new skill, they got cheap bowls and soup, and all the money went to a good cause! (Well… all the money they paid for tickets anyway… I can’t necessarily say the same about our tuition…)

ANYWAY, since then I have been constantly keeping my ear out for opportunities to get back into a pottery studio.  A few months ago I even ended up buying my own wheel!  The problem, however, is that I don’t have any way to glaze and fire anything I make, so for right now it is mostly just for practice.

Since graduating I did take lessons for a couple months from a local potter in her home studio.  (Stay tuned for photos of those pieces!)  And in September I will be taking lessons at the YMCA! So I am pumped about that.

Have you ever tried throwing pottery?  Done any work with clay? If you haven’t, I highly recommend giving it a try!

Oh, and if you want to see any of the current work I have for sale, you can check my Etsy shop here.

Thanks for reading!

With love,
Megan