The WHEEL

Tonight was my first night trying to use the potter's wheel.  It is really, really hard.  I knew it would be hard.  Here are the strategies I implemented:

1. Brute force.  I tried to MAKE my clay go where it was supposed to go.  This of course did not work.
2. Cursing at the clay.  I thought, maybe I could insult it into submission.  This also did not work.
3. Whispering sweet nothings to the clay.  This actually did help.  I was able to do some of the preliminary work with the clay.  I was saying, "Okay clay, go up, go up into a cone.  What a good cone you've made.  Now let's go down, down into a plateau, very nice, good job.  Now back up, let's try the cone again."  It was like teaching a three year old... and that three year old was me.

Notwithstanding these successful strategies, everything I made tonight was terribly lopsided and collapsed.  I did manage to make bowl-like shapes, which I suppose is something to be proud of, even though the shapes were really only distant relatives of the bowl.  (I was trying to make a cylinder, our goal is making a cylinder first, then bowls, then plates!)

Also, I think I may have ruined the pants I was wearing tonight due to the massive amounts of clay that is now embedded in it.  I have to wait for them to dry and then I can shake it out over the shrubbery or something since it's just mud, basically.

So, long story short, I am going to have to go in to do a lot of practice.