Break from the Wheel!

It has been a while since posting my last entry. This was one of those weeks where everything went wrong. It seems like I couldn’t get a decent pot off the wheel if my life depended on it. After recycling the last of multiple birdbath pedestals, I decided to call it quits – sort of.

A while back in class, our instructor had shown us a ‘weaving’ technique, stamped in clay, using his wooden corrugated texture boards. He had taken a band saw to a couple of his boards, and cut out various size rectangles. He then placed a small wood screw on the back of each rectangle for a handle. By turning these rectangles in various ways and stamping the clay, he was able to get woven patterns, herringbone patterns, and random weaves.

Since I was not about to part with the only set of corrugated boards I owned, I decided to stamp them into a clay slab, then cut the slab out into pieces and put them all into the bisque kiln. I now have quite a collection of ‘stamps’ to use for upcoming projects.

I said I had given up, but actually, I just decided to go with a different tactic. I needed a ‘wheel break’ and decided to roll out a slab of clay and try out the stamps that had been sitting in my tool box.

Now while I admire many other potters and their abilities in hand building, I have learned that I truly do not enjoy it myself. While it was the break from the wheel I was looking for, I hate rolling, slipping, scoring, attaching and really hate the repetitive stamp, stamp, stamp that is needed to get that woven look. I was successful, however, in that I’m looking forward to getting back to the wheel tomorrow! Here is the result of my stamping project!