Wednesday, March 26, 2014

coming soon to an overpriced craft fair near you

Yesterday we had 'staff fun day' at work. Although, I have to admit- I have fun most days at work. But yesterday it was officially condoned and sponsored, so that made it different. :) We kicked off the fun by having lunch together at my favorite Indian restaurant downtown. Good food is always my favorite way to have fun. Especially when I'm finally feeling better and getting my appetite back...I had days of bland undereating to make up for!!

After Indian food, we stopped by Starbucks. Nothing says 'fun' like a caramel macchiato on an unseasonably chilly and windy day! Coffee in hand, we walked as a huge pack down to our final destination: Good Dirt, a local clay studio.

Making pottery has always been one of those things that I've thought I'd like to try, thought might be fun, but never with enough confidence to actually want to sign up for a class or pay for it. So this was the perfect opportunity! Try it in the company of my friends and coworkers...and on someone else's dime! Perfect.

We started by putting on aprons. I grabbed the prettiest one I could find. It had a random monogram on it, but I didn't let that deter me. My name could start with K, right? Then we sat down at our wheels. 


Earlier that morning I had asked Matt what I should make. A vase? A platter? CEREAL BOWLS, he replied, without a moment of hesitation. We really need more bowls. Make cereal bowls. I'd laughed at his quick and emphatic response-- apparently I was unaware about how tragically low the cereal bowl situation in our kitchen had become! Later that morning, before we went to the studio, he'd sent an email reminder. Don't forget to make cereal bowls. (PS. His birthday is next week. Guess what I'm getting him??) 

First the guy taught us how to smoosh (technical terms, sorry, I'm a pro now!) the clay down onto the wheel so that it didn't fly off. Turns out this was an important lesson that I didn't fully grasp until later on...oops.


After the smooshing, there are a lot more steps (and no more pictures, cause our hands (and clothes, hair, arms, etc.) were filthy for the duration of the experience)...you squeeze water over it, use your hands to center and shape it...then do some magic stuff to squash down the middle to hollow it out...then do some other stuff to make the walls come up...blah blah blah. I understood it all in theory.

In practice...not so much. 

It's safe to say that pottery making is not my gift.

After about 10 minutes I came to the realization that Matt's request for cereal bowls was not going to be fulfilled. I was not able to actually create anything intentionally. Things just...happened. I smooshed and shaped and whatever appeared, appeared. It was a surprise to all of us! OH LOOK IT'S KINDA LIKE A REALLY SHALLOW VASE THAT YOU COULD STICK THE HEAD OF ONE ROSE IN!!!!! THAT'S GOING TO BE SO PRETTY ON MY- oh never mind, it collapsed. Now it's a...coaster! For my- never mind, now it's lopsided. Ummm...it could be...dangit. It flew off the wheel. Shoulda paid attention to how to get it to stick. NEW CLAY, PLEASE!!

It was TONS of fun. But don't anticipate receiving a new handmade set of serving platters and bowls from me anytime soon.

I ended up with two completed products that I was able to paint (and they'll glaze and fire and do other things to them later so that we can take them home and use them!). They are both bowl-ish. Small. You could technically eat cereal out of them if a) you're on a very strict diet and only want to eat about 40 Cheerios, and b) you have a really small spoon.

In other words, I'll probably be selling them for $400 each at a craft fair soon.

Here's a sneak peek for you! The colors will change a bit once they're baked or whatever. Maybe. Something.


 I think the subliminal message of yesterday's Staff Fun Day was don't quit your day job to 'make it' as a potter. Noted.

27 comments:

  1. Love this. A group of us are doing a similar thing except its painting. I am scared. I have a feeing the artwork will end up on the garage wall! Ha ha. But yours turned out pretty good. Just tell people you bought them at a craft fair, or a museum. It totally makes them legit then.

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  2. So fun... as a weird little art kid growing up, I actually took pottery classes, so once upon a time there was a LOT of that kind of stuff around my house. I say for a first go at it, you did pretty good. When someone asks why it's asymmetrical, you just tell them it was intentional and artistic! What a fun day at work! Fun for me is jeans, so this is AWESOME!

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  3. That's hilarious and great! I took pottery in hs and had a ton of deformed vase/cereal bowls!

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  4. Indian Food, Bucks of Star, and fun crafty pottery... your day sounds amazing!

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  5. I found your blog a couple of months ago, but (I think) this is my first time commenting. This post cracked me up. My husband is a potter and is at Penn State getting his MFA in ceramics. But I can't throw on a wheel for the life of me. Even though I actually know the terms (your piece is getting fired in a kiln), I can't make anything...so your pots look impressive to me!

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  6. If you can get them to throw a handle on the one on the right, you'd have a pretty awesome (and huge!) coffee mug!

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  7. LOL. I used to do pottery (got to level 4!) in college, so I was somewhat decent. It is hhhhhaaaarrrrrrddddddd and I would spend hours and hours a day in there. I was a dirtbag, literally, so gross all the time from playing in mud, essentially. I still have after all those years hardly anything to show for all that time in the studio. Like, one small boxful and none of it is displayed/used in my house. :)

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  8. So fun! I would like to submit employee fun day to my next employer. That'll definitely give me an edge in the interview process. 12 hour shift? Sure, as long as we can leave our patients and have a fun day every so often... Seriously though, excited to see the completed pieces.

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  9. My aunt and uncle bought me a multi use art set for Christmas one year. You could splatter paint, do something else, and then it turned into a pottery wheel. My dream was to be an artist so this was my chance to wow everyone as I replicated the super cool pictures on the box.

    As I now teach Kindergarten, it's safe to say my skills weren't as hot as I had hoped. It never worked and I would just keep adding water thinking it was too hard and it quickly became a wet mess.

    I'm impressed that yours actually resemble something, Go you!

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  10. Don't you ever leave that job of yours - you've got a good set-up!

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  11. That looks like a super fun day! I've always wanted to smoosh! The hard work your bowls took gives me a bit of appreciation for handmade pottery. I can see why you clearly need to charge $400 per piece!

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  12. Where can I get a job that has fun days like this?!?! Sign me up!!

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  13. The closest thing to a fun day we have is a bowling deal for a couple of hours with pizza which is good with me because of the pizza! I think the one on the left looks pretty good! You could probably really charge a nice price and someone would buy it these days :)

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  14. Wow that looks like so much fun! You seem like you really love your job - how great is that?!

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  15. So fun! Indian food is the best and your new cereal bowls put my boring fiesta ware to shame. Your talents are endless!!!

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  16. So what are you going to call your etsy shop?!

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  17. Lol, still sounds like a super fun staff day. I've always wanted to take a pottery class!

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  18. This looks like so much fun! I want to go!!

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  19. I want to work at your job!! I mean, seriously! That is awesome. Love that your husband said cereal bowls!!! I am guessing that's what brad would have said as well, considering his obsession for cereal. :)

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  20. Hahaha! Love this post! Wheel throwing is hard...I took 1 semester of ceramics in college and spent way more hours in the studio than my classmates and, in the end, had some nice pieces. One late-ish night my prof stopped in to pick something up and watched me for a while, saying, "You are fun to watch. You have such small hands, but you use your whole body to manipulate the clay. You are fearless!" That still makes me chuckle. I seriously laughed out loud about your clay flying off :)

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  21. Oh, my! I am so jealous of your fun day! One of my most desired/disappointing Christmas presents ever was a kid's pottery wheel. The sears catalog made it look so magical (and commercials too, I'm sure), but it was a BUST. My pottery making dreams were crushed!

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  22. You crack me up! It looks like you all had fun! I took a pottery class back in college thinking it would be an easy elective. The joke was on me! I never left there clean enough to go to my next class without changing clothes and ended up having to put in hours upon hours outside of class in order to make anything presentable (aka...good enough to get a decent grade). The wheel was my nemesis and I always ended up using the roller (I think that's what it was called...maybe not) or making coils so I wouldn't have to use the wheel. When it was all said and done, it was fun class, but I don't think I'd sign up for it again!

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  23. Ha ha ha ha ha!!! I've done pottery but never with a wheel. It was always hand building and much more controlled. I love the image of the clay flying off the wheel. Was it similar to birds or less scary? :) And I think your Etsy shop name should be Erika's Smooshed Store. I can see it sweeping (or smooshing?!) the nation!

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  24. You should come sell your pottery as weed bowls in Colorado. You would make a million dollars.

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