First of all, thank you so so much for your kind words and advice on the previous post. It means a lot to me, truly encouraging and empowering so thank you!
My wrist is getting much better now and I have got back on a wheel again. On my regular visits at Brier Hey Pottery, David has been helping me ‘refining’ my throwing. It may sound odd but I have never done throwing at his studio in the past. It was simply not my role at the time. Nevertheless I watched him throwing many times and tried to copy it. Of course it was not that simple to copy just by eyes. My throwing was mixture of what I had learnt briefly at college 10 years ago and self practice for the rest. It was pretty much ‘guess work’ and obviously I have developed quite many ‘bad habits’ - too much water, too much clay on the base, too long messing about… you name it. I suppose there is no right or wrong way to throw, but it is very helpful if you can reduce those bad habits in order to establish the best way that suits you. Under his guidance, I have been practicing to make numbers of bowls in exactly the same shape, in height, diameter, thickness and angle of curve. Just doing over and over. Such practice is hard and mundane but necessary if you want to get rid of bad habits. It’s been a good learning curve so far and my body has begun to response better. The result of my throwing is much less wasteful of clay, water, effort and time. Thank you, David!
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| my unsuccessful thrown pot going to the death road |
He is now off to another ceramic event in France so I will not be working in his studio for a while. In the meantime I must keep practicing at home and start making work for the forthcoming event and the final year of my degree course. Soon it will be a mad time again!
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| view from Brier Hey Pottery Studio |
By the way, the last minute decision. I will be finally flying to Japan next month before my course restarts. It’s been three years since I last saw my folks. Well over due and I’m soooooooooooo looking forward to it. xm
aha perfection! I kinda like the imperfect ones too ;o) It must be hard not seeing your folks for so long...how exciting...what a wonderful trip to look forward to. x
ReplyDeleteGood luck with practising, it sounds like fun! :)
ReplyDeleteGlad you're going to go back to Japan for a visit, I'm sure it will give you lots of renewed energy and inspiration :)
how lucky to get such tuition! i would love to practise throwing!!
ReplyDeletehope you have a great time in japan. there must be a lot to catch up after 3 years!!
What fun !
ReplyDeleteI am so pleased you are able to visit your family,I am sure they must miss you.