Ceramics Class Over the years

I've been taking a ceramics course this semester. Since my partner is a police officer, I often find myself bored at home or watching TV for hours instead of doing something productive. I'm also a recent college graduate who is used to night classes, which means that free time after work is a relatively new concept to me. I spent my time the whole fall semester doing a whole lot of nothing at night, and I decided it was time for a change. When I made a list of goals for 2016, finding a ceramics course was high on the list.

I found out my local park district had a really great selection of courses to choose from.

I'm no stranger to ceramics. In high school I took a semester of ceramics, a semester of sculpture, and a semester of independent study ceramics. At my liberal arts college, I took a semester of hand-building ceramics and a semester of throwing on the wheel.  These are just some of my creations from those semesters, with the exception of items from my semester of throwing on the wheel... I was in the process of graduating with my bachelor's degree and never took pictures of my creations. In addition, I sold off a lot of my pieces to friends and family members, or gave them away, without taking pictures. Here are old pictures or pictures of items I found around my house. There are probably a good 30 more of my creations floating around in peoples houses or in a box in my garage.

  

  

          

  

 

I threw this using a special tool to help me reach inside. It is the heaviest object! Not my best work

Most of my thown pieces ended up as pencil holders, but I absolutely love this one.

This was Raku fired.

This semester was really an adventure for me. I really missed the wonderful art studio we had at my undergraduate institution. The glazes were vibrant and wonderful, and we made our own clay on site. I was able to explore a lot more of the art of ceramics, including Raku firing and throwing on the wheel for at least 4 hours a week for 16 weeks or more if I decided I wanted to go in for more studio time.  This time around, the glazes were really lacking, I was able to spend about 2 hours a week at most for 8 weeks, and my instructor seemed to be frustrated with my lack of knowledge despite my experience.  Overall, I set out to do what I wanted to, and I made some pretty cool projects.

My pinch pot soap dish. It has feet on the bottom as well

One of my thrown objects. I ended up with a bubble I could never find, leading it to be very uneven. Solution? Add texture!

Coil pot. The glaze was supposed to be bright blue all over...

I spent the majority of my time working on this project. I meticulously picked it out from pinterest.

I used coils but I wish I would've used the extractor to save myself some precious time. Can you tell what I can use it for?

That's right, one of my other loves, knitting/crocheting!

I ended up with two of these items in order to experiment with throwing different shaped bowls (one is not pictured currently). This fits perfectly in my bathroom to hold all my hair ties and bobby pins.

I also spent quite a bit of time on this project. I plan to have a decent garden this summer and these herbs will be represented! Even if my green thumb doesn't work out, at least my garden will be cute, haha!

My final object I created was a simple slab mug, which is still being fired! I'll update the post with pictures when I go pick it up.

For more ceramics ideas, go to my Pinterest Board.