There's Something Special About First Period

As many of you probably know, I taught high school math for fourteen and a half years at Shelby High School.  Eight and a half years ago, I had the opportunity to move to Cleveland Community College.  I have never doubted that it was the right move for me professionally, but quitting that job was the one of hardest things that I have ever done.

I had the chance to teach some really awesome people there - people that I thought were pretty neat when they were in high school and that have not disappointed me as they have become adults.  With my particular teaching assignment, I was lucky enough to teach some students for two or three of their four years of high school math. I'm telling you, there is no better way to build relationships with students than to get to know them over the course of a few years.

I'm thinking specifically today about some of my first period classes.  For me, first period was the best time of the day.  I was fresh.  The students sometimes weren't quite awake.  There was more time to really talk to them before school started and we had to get moving on whatever I was teaching.  For whatever reasons, I could be a little more relaxed with a class at the beginning of the day, and they seemed more forgiving when I was a total goofball.  Cora and Morgan laughed at me when I did "Kermit arms" because I was really excited about something.  Maryam and Heather did not laugh at me when I practiced my solo for the school musical in front of their class because I was scared to death to sing in front of people.  We sometimes met before school at The Pancake House, and sometimes they would bring me coffee if some of them met over there and I couldn't go.

Aaah...that coffee during first period class.  For me, there was always a cup.  Some days I needed to slurp it down to try to ingest enough caffeine to function.  Other days, I could sip slowly.  One of my first period students went to Disney World over Spring Break.  She brought me a Mickey Mouse mug.  That mug is special to me and it always will be.  If it ever breaks, I am going to be devastated.

If you are wondering why I'm going on and on about students that I taught years ago and coffee and mugs, I ask for your patience.  I'm getting to the pottery part soon.

I got an email from a high school student in Tennessee a few weeks ago.  This young man's first period teacher is a former student of mine. This teacher had a special mug that he drank from every morning and students knew not to touch it.  It turns out that I made that mug.  First of all, I am honored when I hear that something that I have made is a favorite.  There is no greater compliment.

Yep, you guessed it.  The past tense when I talk about the mug was the give away, wasn't it?  Someone in this first period class broke the mug one morning.

This is the really neat part.  This student was listening when his teacher talked about his old teacher, and he was listening when he talked about his hometown in North Carolina.  This student found me, and asked if I would make Mr. Garwood a replacement mug in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week.

I was not sure that I would be able to meet the deadline, but I did!  Mr. Garwood received his mug today on his last day of school.  I hope he likes it.  😊

For Those Second Graders

This post is specifically for Catherine Ware and her students that I met last week.  I promised some pictures of the next steps on finishing up the cup and bowl that I made when I was with them.

Because it is not as interesting, I will start with the bowl.  

I trimmed the bottom a little bit.  This makes the bottom of the bowl nicer and neater than it was when I first made it. I use a bat covered with foam for trimming bowls.  The foam cushions the rim of the bowl so that it is not damaged and keeps the bowl from slipping around when I work on it.  There are special tools for trimming off extra clay from the bottoms of pieces.  The clay cuts off in long pieces that look sort of like ribbons.   

There was more to finishing the mug.  

First, I cut it off the bat and smoothed out the edge on the bottom of it.

Then I worked on the handle.  

To join two pieces of clay, you start by "scoring" the surfaces that need to be joined.  Scoring is a fancy way of saying that I scratched it up with my needle tool.  The deeper the scratches are, the more secure the joint is where the two pieces come together.

Then I put "slip" on the scored end of the handle.  Slip is just liquid clay.  It is slimy and gross, but it does the job.

Then I pressed the handle on the cup.  The slip pushes into the places that I had scored the pieces and really holds them together like glue.

Here is what it looks like before I stretch the handle into the shape that I want it.

This is what it looks like after I have stretched it out.  To make this happen, I hold the cup in my left hand.  I get the handle wet and I wet my right hand and gently stretch and pull it down until I like the way that it looks.  I want it thin enough that it looks nice but not too skinny so that it looks like it doesn't match the cup.  I like big, substantial handles on my mugs, so I start with a pretty big piece of clay.  I can cut off any that it extra if the handle is too long once I get it stretched out the way that I want. I was the only one in the studio the day that I made this handle or I would have asked someone to video that part.  It's kind of cool to watch.

Finally, I bend the handle down and press the bottom of it on to the bottom of the mug.  After that, it has to dry.

The mug and the bowl are both drying now. I will bisque fire them soon and then glaze them and fire them again.  For the second time in just a few days, I wish I had a nice orange glaze that I could use.  Orange is a hard color to find. 

I liked the design of the mug that I made when I was at Graham School so much that I made some more later that afternoon when I was back in the studio.

Rock Star Status

I may have said this before, but it is worth repeating.  If you ever need to feel like a super human, do a pottery demonstration for children.

Catherine Ware asked me to talk to her second graders at Graham Elementary School on Friday.  Jeff volunteered to help me take a wheel over there.  Being able to show students how pottery is made on the wheel was MUCH better than just talking about it.  As soon as I made the first pull, there were lots of oohs and aahs.  One little voice asked me if I was magic.  Of course, my answer was, "Yes."

They all had tons of questions, and we ran out of time.  Next time I do something like this, we will skip the pictures of the studio and go straight in to the demonstration.  That's what kids want to see.

Remember that bisque fire I did on Thursday?  Unloaded Saturday morning. I'll be headed back to the studio today to start glazing.  

So many cups.

And bunches of other things.  Who made all this stuff?

Yes, This Is Normal

Pottery sometimes requires the use of the entire body.  At least for me it does.  Gail took this picture last weekend when I was getting handles on batter bowls.

A bowl is significantly heavier than a mug and I was having a hard time holding it while I pulled the handle.  Got a lot easier when I rested it on my head.  Of course, then the problem was that I couldn't really see what I was doing. Things need to be farther away from my eyes these days if I am going to be able to focus on them.  

As promised, I am telling you about loading up a bisque fire...

I hope things will be cool enough to unload on Saturday morning.  I'd like to get some things glazed right away so that I can fire a glaze fire ASAP.  I have a few pieces that have deadlines.  I'm really nervous about meeting those deadlines.  

In other news, I'm going on the road again this morning.  More on that later...

Not Bad...

I know this will sound funny, but it hit me that it is May already.  June and July are going to be very busy this year, and I know that I won't have time to do much in the way of pottery making.  So if I am going to get a head start on making stuff for the fall, I've got to start now. What?  

That whole thought didn't hit me until yesterday afternoon, but I wonder if subconsciously I wasn't already thinking about that.  I got a lot of work done Thursday, Friday, and Saturday this week.  

Mugs for Hannah's Coffee House.  

Ok, I threw these last week but didn't have time (or energy) to get handles on them until Friday.  I have learned much about keeping things from drying out too much from Lisa and Gail over the last couple of years.

I have a commission for a large planter decorated with ginkgo leaves. I got started on that.  

This is the first attempt.  I like the shape Ok, but this one got away from me and ended up wider and not as tall as I wanted it to be.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.  This second attempt is taller.

I'm not sure how I'm going to glaze these pieces so that the leaf impressions really show up nicely.  So I made some cups each with a small leaf on them.  I'll use the cups to figure out what glaze will work before I tackle the glaze on the big pieces.  I didn't get a picture of the cups.

I made some bowls.  The two in the back will be batter bowls when I'm done with them, and the one in the front on the left is actually a casserole dish.  I haven't made any casseroles in a while.

Not my smoothest move of the weekend.  If you drop a ruler on a newly thrown bowl, this happens and it will make you very sad.  

Spouts added to the batter bowls.

Bowls trimmed and handles added.

I'm not sure that I have the handles right.  They need to be sturdy enough to pick up a bowl when it is full.  I really don't like a wimpy handle, so I may have over done it.  These are my first two batter bowls, so I'm still trying to figure out what works.  

I don't know what got in to me, but all together, I made 5 mugs (not pictured) and put handles on 8 from last week.  I made 2 large planters and 8 cups all with ginkgo leaves that I may or may not have been able to press into the wet clay with enough pressure to make a good impression.  I made 2 batter bowls, another bowl that I dropped a ruler on but was able to repair, and a casserole.  

There is a bisque fire in my not so distant future closely followed by a glaze fire.  I hope that I'm telling you about the bisque fire next week.  (Crosses fingers that everything goes well.)  I have some pieces that I need to get finished ASAP.  They have been on the shelves waiting for what feels like a long time.