The semester has ended but I'm still in art class, now as a Grade Twelve instead of a Grade Eleven.
(Whoo! So much fun! So much to do! University applications! Scholarship essays! Being treated as an adult even though, until about a few months ago, everyone told me I was trying to grow up too fast! Whoooo, so much fun!*)
*Please note the obvious sarcasm. It sucks. It really sucks.
Anyway... let's push that emotional and stressful mess to the side and focus on something a lot more peaceful, a lot more calming: pottery.
Hahahaha, no.
Whoever labeled pottery as relaxing must have been smoking a lot of grass, 'cause this stuff was hard. And frustrating. And insanity inducing. It was especially hard for someone with hands the size of a small child.
For our first assignment, we had to make two mugs, with the only requirement being that they had to be able to hold liquid. Which mine did manage to do. Barely. We used two different methods of creation, one for each of the mugs. I used the handmade method with my first mug, which I enjoyed a lot more than the potter's wheel; even though I had to remake my mug several times.
When it came to the potter's wheel, I simply wasn't a fan. Part of it was just preference, but part of it was the fact that my body is literally not built to use the wheel. My hands are really small, which kept me from making a larger mug. I don't have strong forearm's so my hands wobbled a lot. And my legs were too short to support my arms to keep the clay steady; I literally had my leg propped up on my chair just to be able to hold up my arms.
The mug I made on the wheel didn't turn out that well, either; though I know that's not the point. We're here to learn about what we like, what we're good and bad at, learn from our mistakes, etc. But it still frustrated me that I couldn't get the mug to quality and shape that I wanted it.
Looking back, I don't think pottery is something I'm going to return to, but I did learn a lot while doing this assignment, and that I'm grateful for. If nothing else, it helped me build an appreciation for those who create ceramics and pottery as a hobby, or even a living, because it's definitely not nearly as easy as I thought it would be.
Whoever labeled pottery as relaxing must have been smoking a lot of grass, 'cause this stuff was hard. And frustrating. And insanity inducing. It was especially hard for someone with hands the size of a small child.
For our first assignment, we had to make two mugs, with the only requirement being that they had to be able to hold liquid. Which mine did manage to do. Barely. We used two different methods of creation, one for each of the mugs. I used the handmade method with my first mug, which I enjoyed a lot more than the potter's wheel; even though I had to remake my mug several times.
When it came to the potter's wheel, I simply wasn't a fan. Part of it was just preference, but part of it was the fact that my body is literally not built to use the wheel. My hands are really small, which kept me from making a larger mug. I don't have strong forearm's so my hands wobbled a lot. And my legs were too short to support my arms to keep the clay steady; I literally had my leg propped up on my chair just to be able to hold up my arms.
The mug I made on the wheel didn't turn out that well, either; though I know that's not the point. We're here to learn about what we like, what we're good and bad at, learn from our mistakes, etc. But it still frustrated me that I couldn't get the mug to quality and shape that I wanted it.
Looking back, I don't think pottery is something I'm going to return to, but I did learn a lot while doing this assignment, and that I'm grateful for. If nothing else, it helped me build an appreciation for those who create ceramics and pottery as a hobby, or even a living, because it's definitely not nearly as easy as I thought it would be.
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| One of the two terrible mugs I made. When I showed my mum this she said, "I don't think that can hold water." So encouraging, my mum. |
