Hello!

First post, so its going to be long! I want to catch up with everything :)  So to summarize, I had my senior show last semester (you can look at my flickr photos or my deviantart account to see pictures of those pieces).  Then I didn't do anything for a while (besides read a lot of books); then I took a two month, once a week class at Clayways, and I got a little bit of work done.

This teapot is one of the (few) pieces I did at Clayways, in addition to another teapot, some bowls, and a few little cups. It has the Clayways blue spod and teal glazes, with a bamboo handle.  This particular one had a lug break off, and I glued it, but I will probably give it away rather than sell :P.

So after that class I was lazy for the next few months; I did a lot more reading and sleeping, etc.  But I also got a new part time job in the evenings, so I had my days free...

Enter Ryan and his awesome studio!! I got ahold of a wheel somehow, and Ryan is letting me throw in his studio in return for doing fun chores like washing stuff and vacuming a lot :) Although I also get to help Ryan out with his stuff which is interesting.

To make things even better, Chris is also working in Ryans studio! So I get to hang out with two awesome potters with totally different styles, see how they work (and maybe even get some input from them?)

There is also a studio cat! Her name is Birthday and she is a sweety, though super needy when Ryan is out of town.  She loves to get in the way and shove at your hand with her head for pets, especially when you are handling something delicate :P This is a picture of her sleeping in a box that I believe is where Ryan keeps all of his important papers.

These are some of the first things I did, they are little tiny cups (whiskey cups? who knows).  I am trying to get back into the groove (hehe) of carving my pots, but I am working a lot smaller now than I was with the pieces in the show, so I am having some trouble.  Part of it is that I probably need smaller tools, and that I make sure the clay is the right wet/dryness to not crumble or stick.

But those designs also take FOREVER to carve out, so I tried some simpler designs on these bowls.  I liked the way they turned out, and I reallllly like the way the carved out spaces look (on these and the above cups).  I like the wood-cut feel, and I plan on looking up some wood cut artists to get some inspiration.

Still having problems here. I am not happy with the way these designs are turning out, but I think its only partly my technique/tools, and partly that I need to think the designs through more.  I generally just make a sketch, the carve it out, but I need to make the sketch with a woodcut/carving in mind, so it works better once its on the pot.

Because I was getting frustrated with the results of the earlier designs (and the time they take to carve), I did the same simple cut-outs on these mugs, and I really like the way they turned out. I may stick with this while I am figuring out how to do more complicated drawings.