In high school, I took an elective pottery class and was pretty much hooked on the medium. We spent most of the year hand-building things like vases, using rolled ropes of clay; a box, using slabs; little flasks; a hollow egg. We got to use some glazes, and for those who finished their other projects early, we got to dabble a little in throwing on a wheel. The latter certainly takes a different kind of patience (and lots of it!), esp when you're inexperienced. Considering the learning curve of the wheel, you could say I prefer the "freedom" of hand-building. But I talk as if I've taken many classes since, when in reality, after high school, I was able to work with clay only a handful more times with my aunt in Taiwan. It was on one of my visits back to Taiwan that I accompanied my aunt to one of her pottery classes and we made a dish with melted glass in the bottom. The result was exactly like in these sundrops except we weren't able to find enough broken glass (on the street) to cover the bottom entirely. Given the materials and workspace, I could easily make these for myself. They're really very pretty to look at.
16 May 2008
Etsy :: jeffmartin :: sundrops
In high school, I took an elective pottery class and was pretty much hooked on the medium. We spent most of the year hand-building things like vases, using rolled ropes of clay; a box, using slabs; little flasks; a hollow egg. We got to use some glazes, and for those who finished their other projects early, we got to dabble a little in throwing on a wheel. The latter certainly takes a different kind of patience (and lots of it!), esp when you're inexperienced. Considering the learning curve of the wheel, you could say I prefer the "freedom" of hand-building. But I talk as if I've taken many classes since, when in reality, after high school, I was able to work with clay only a handful more times with my aunt in Taiwan. It was on one of my visits back to Taiwan that I accompanied my aunt to one of her pottery classes and we made a dish with melted glass in the bottom. The result was exactly like in these sundrops except we weren't able to find enough broken glass (on the street) to cover the bottom entirely. Given the materials and workspace, I could easily make these for myself. They're really very pretty to look at.
