# 9

In terms of what I wanted to accomplish this quarter....I do not think that I did as much as I was planning on. Yes, i did manage to make some plates, a few that I am particularly proud of. I also mangaged to make several large seving bowls, but overall, I feel like I do not really do enough this quarter.

#8

For the end of quarter wrap up, I plan on glazing my bigger pieces. I also plan on using a few glazes I don't normally use and trying some different glazing techniques. I have done successfully on my serving platter I made. the base coat was Desert Sand and then I dribbled Deep Water Blue and Portage Glaicier Blue around the rim. It turned out it I had hoped it would. The rest of my pieces will present a challenge for me to glaze due to the size of them....they wont fit in the glazing buckets so I;m going to have to pour on the glaze.

Blog # 7

I learned this quarter that one must have patience when working with large pieces of clay. I have had to slow down this quarter and be patient when im sitting at the wheel working with a big piece of clay. Everything takes longer....the throwing....the drying......the trimming.......however, it all pays off in the end when it comes out of the glaze kiln.

Blog #6

So far, I'm pretty happy with what I have accomplished thus far. I have made 8 plates, a large serving platter, and a few bowls. I have run into a problem though with my serving platter. I can not dip it in the glaze bucket. So I have to pour in the glaze. Other than that, i haven't really had any problems. As soon as I figure out how to post pictures on here, I will post some of my pieces.

# 5

Everytime I get a chance to see someone else's pottery, I look at how different it looks from mine. I look at how they shaped it, decorated it, glazed it and think about where their inspiration comes from. When I look at Mike's pottery I see all the different textures and shapes that are so very unique to his work. I know that he also does a lot of work with fibers and textiles as well which comes through in his pieces.

Any Suggestions?????

So I walked into the studio this morning with desire to put clay to wheel. I feel almost burnt out. I do enjoy pottery but the past two days I haven't felt like doing much in there. Yesterday all I did was prep my pieces for glazing. Today, I put some decorations on one piece and called it good for the day. Tomorrow I really do want to go in and make a couple plates and maybe a bowl or two; however, I just don't want to make anything today. Is it normal to take a break for a couples days then start up again?

I had some time this moring to really look at my pieces and decide what I liked, didn't like and need to change. My plates need a lot of work. They are heavier than I would like and there is not very much in the way of uniform size. I need to trim more off the bottom of the plates but I get scared I'm going to slice a hole in them. So my plan is to work on making my plates thinner and more uniform in size. My bowls, on the other hand, look pretty much like I want them to. I have had a couple of issues trying to get the shape I want but for the most part, it's going well. My plan is to work on plates for another week then start on mugs with handles and more bowls.