Less than perfect Raku pottery

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I signed up for a workshop because we live in rural Vermont now, I work remotely for Dartmouth College, and I need to meet people.

The artist, Andrew Berends, lives 10 min away from me. Last Saturday, we made our pottery. I got to try the wheel and did some slab building.

Oooh boy. :rofl::laughing: It was good for me. I will typically remake something until it looks not perfect but pretty darn good. I didn’t have time to do that so I had to just accept stuff as it was.

Anyway, today I returned to fire everything. It was so much fun.

This bowl is one of my favorites.

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My sad wheel thrown pots but glammed up with feathers and horse hair. :laughing:

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A weird vase or something or other.

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Anyhow, it was fun. Andrew mentioned he’ll be doing more workshops. Which is great because I think it’s fun but it’s cost prohibitive. His workshops make it more affordable for me to play around.

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I like your vase-thingy quite a lot! The bowl is cool…. Honestly, it’s all cool!

PS. I tried throwing pottery once. It was a bonafide disaster. :woman_facepalming:

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Andrew told us not to let the clay win. The clay won all three times I used the wheel. Also my arms hurt the next day. Apparently, I am not used to using those muscles.

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Really? Everytime I throw something, it’s a direct hit.
Just kidding.

Rlynn, I love your not perfect work. I won a local piece similiar.Love it.
I also love your use of black,white,gray. That’s my mind set but colors make me smile.

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That’s awesome that you got to do the workshop. Everything came out wonderful.

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That looks like so much fun! I really like your bowl, too - the texture is great and the light/dark glaze is beautiful. Very bold and organic.

Last time I threw pottery on a wheel was high school. I managed to make a little cup about the size of an egg, and I was glad I managed that much. Your cup looks awesome.

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Raku, yum!

I spent a summer throwing pottery when I was 14, got pretty good. Didn’t try again until my 40s, and I couldn’t get the hang of it. Tried once more 20 years later, but the stand-up wheel was too low and my back hurt. Yeah, that was the problem, or my pot would have worked…

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Super fun! The glazes are magical.

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I think they’re perfect!

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Beautiful! I don’t think the clay won… or if it did, I think it was a win for you as well. Gorgeous!

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Heh. My back was pretty stiff the next day.

  1. The wheel was pretty low. He had a higher one but there were people taller than me there so…
  2. I am not used to standing on my feet that long anymore. I have a desk job. Heh.

Thanks everyone! I’ll attend the next workshop he holds. I’ll probably do a little planning beforehand now that I know what to expect.

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Love your bowl and the black/white raku is always my fave. :black_heart:

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Nice! Its funny how a good surface treatment can make things look so much better. :green_heart:

(I’ve done a little wheel work, & ended up deciding that it is not my thing-- you have at most three pulls before you have to live with what you’ve got or swap in a new ball of clay, and I have more fun mucking around with handbuilding where you’re not constrained to the pace of the wheel & you can tweak things for much longer before they fall apart. But if you’re fighting perfectionist tendencies, wheel might well be the way to go!)

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:cherry_blossom: Congrats! This bloomin’ amazing project is featured this week! :cherry_blossom:

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These are so cool! I love how organic they are. They look like you planned it.

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I like the inside of the bowl and your wheel thrown pots are sweet.

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Eeep, what a fun experience!! It’s so fun to get your hands in mud and to see what comes to life. Bonus that you got to raku, too!