Mark has been making pottery as long as we’ve been married (30+ years) and I’ve never used a pottery wheel. When we opened the studio, I decided that it was about time I gave it a try. I contacted my sister and a few girlfriends and we signed up to take a Try It pottery class at Throwing Mud Gallery.
We met at the gallery and started with some snacks and drinks that we brought from home. Mark got thing ready for us in the pottery studio while we ate, chatted and looked around the gallery.
Our first project was a slab dish. Mark rolled out clay on the slab roller, gave us each a piece and we cut the clay into a square. We had many different stamps to choose from to decorate our slabs.
The magic happens when you put your slab on a foam cushion
Then you quickly push a square tile into the center of your slab
And you have a little dish!
Very cool!
Next up Mark showed us how to prepare the clay for the pottery wheel
Here we are with our tools and bats ready to make some pottery!
I intended to take more pictures of the process, but you know what? Throwing pottery on a wheel is MESSY business and my hands were wet and covered in clay. But here’s the proof that we actually each made a small bowl on the pottery wheel, with a lot of expert help from Mark.
Our bowls were marked with our names and glaze choices. Mark will trim them, fire them in the bisque kiln then glaze them with our choice of color before the final firing.
What a fun way to spend the evening with good friends!
tammy
Make sure you take a picture of the final product. I esp. want to see those little dishes. Looks like a lot of fun! 🙂
Carol
That looks like such a nice fun time spent with friends (and sister). lol Thanks for sharing, Eileen.
jackie
OK, now I want to take a pottery class! It looks like you had so much fun, and your soon-to-be finished products look awesome! I can see that you had an excellent teacher. I can’t wait to see the finished products!