Guy Ballard

Practice, practice, practice.  That is the theme for my third pottery class.  I plan to take a shape each night and try to repeat it as many times as I possible can. Tonight, I plan to make the ceramic IPhone amplifier, pictured below. Each night I will look for a shape a practice that shape during that entire class.

I glazed a red clay birdhouse that I had covered with a leaf patterned white clay slip.  I used a white glaze followed by an oatmeal glaze. I think this is same combination that I used on this bowl from the first class. I will be anxious to see how this turns out. I found 3 pieces that were still covered in plastic that I had not trimmed or prepared for the bisque firing. I decided to bring those home so to finish and return later.  2 of them were pots without lids.  One I damaged in transport, so I used the clay from that pot to make a lid for the other. The other item was a birdhouse body without a top. I am thinking about putting a flat top or slightly angled roof on this one.  I will add pictures for these later.   Finally I did take box and lid that I made to class to get it bisque fired so that I can glaze it later.  The box sort of looks like this one. I intend to add the white glaze as well.   Lastly, I started to put my Etsy si...

Last night, I applied a clear glaze, one dip on two bowls that I had put two kinds of underglaze on while they were in the leather hard stage.  One was a slip made from the white clay and the other colors from a store bought colored undergalze.  I will include pictures here when the bowls have been fired. The second item that I chose to glaze was a white clay bisque-fired round bowl-like birdhouse. I gave it one dip of white and then one dip of oatmeal.  I will include a picture here when it is fired. (note that I did not denote a clear bottom, so I am not sure how it will be fired that the glaze will not stick to the self.

Next week, concludes the second pottery class taken a Park West Ceramics. This was the advanced class and so the demonstrations were a little more advanced but assumed that you had a good grasp and skills of basic pottery techniques.  Now I need to decide whether I take another class here or venture off to another studio to see if I can grow my knowledge. I have investigated some alternatives, online and found the Lil Street Art Center, might be a good alternative. They seem to have an art focus with resident artist conducting the classes. I think this might be more challenging.   Last night, I asked others if they new of it and one of the ladies said that she had taken classes there in the past but, thought the routines were to rigid for her.  She liked the freedom and low key atmosphere a Park West Ceramics. I need more time to practice techniques and get a solid feel for the basics. So, I will stay where I am for another term and then investigate Lil Street in the...