Eggbowls and the magic of ceramic glazes

Last Tuesday was the last day of my pottery class, but I've already signed up for the next class, which is seamlessly starting next week. There's still so much to learn, one class certainly isn't enough, far from it. Also, it's not something you can easily do at home. Although I could definitely do with the extra practice.

The three weeks ago, I produced a couple of "egg bowls". No, they're not bowls for eggs, I call them so because they're not nice and round, but all wobbly - which in German is 'eiern', from 'Ei', i.e. egg. You can see in the first picture the lump of wet clay that my teacher cut off, to save what could be save. It still looks a bit sad.

My teacher reckoned it was because it wasn't properly centred in the first place. It was, though, centering is the one thing I manage not too bad. But there's so much else that can go wrong afterwards, when opening up or pulling. Pulling is something I still totally struggle with. I was trying to pull up a bowl, totally focused on what I was doing, when I noticed my teacher shouting and pointing. I hadn't noticed, but the wall had totally collapsed at the bottom. I had pushed and pulled too hard. There was no hope for that piece, it had to be cut off. 

Last week, I took a little break from the wheel, and spend most of the evening glazing four pieces that had been fired the week before. (My teacher had helped me throw the big cylinder, which is why it looks good. The ones I did myself are all wobbly, chunky, uneven flat bowls). Apart from the brush on glazes, I tried dip glazes too this time. The glazes still amaze and confuse me. They're texture is so different to the paints I'm used to. And not to speak of the colours. How that light mauve will turn into a shiny light green in the kiln is quite beyond me. It must be magic!

I didn't do a very good job last time I glazed my first pieces, so I'm hoping I did better with these. They should have been fired already. Can't wait 'til Tuesday to see how they turned out!