Ceramic Class part one

If you follow me over on Instagram (and if you don't I am @ladybirdlikes so get following!) then you'll have seen me post photos from my ceramics course. One of my biggest goals this year was to try more new things and make time to be more creative, so as part of that I've been trying to cram in as many courses learning new craft-based skills as possible. So far I have tried gocco printing, sourdough bread making, screenprinting, and I also signed up for a five week long ceramics course.

I've always been into ceramics, and I've particularly been enjoying the resurgence they've seen lately as a 'trendy' craft, particularly as planters and the like. The course I'm taking is run by Ceramics Coop near New Cross, and runs every Tuesday or Saturday evening for five weeks, or you can take a longer course that lasts ten weeks. All the materials are provided, and you can either explore on your own, or follow their 'one skill a week' lesson structure. So far we have covered pinch pots, slab-building, and coiling, and talked about different types of slips, underglazes, and glazes, as well as touching on firing temperatures, which left me feeling a bit mind-boggled!

So far it has been a REALLY fun experience - I absolutely love learning new things, particularly if it's something creative. I have to confess, I've found it a lot more difficult and frustrating than I thought it would be, but that's purely because I am the most impatient person in the world. Some people can sit there for hours perfecting one pot, making it absolutely beautiful and smooth. Me, I want to churn out twenty pots every lesson, even if that means half of them barely resemble a pot! But I do think I am getting better - I made a couple more pinch pots in our last class, and they were far better than the ones I made in the first class,  so maybe there is hope for me yet!

Apologies that these photos aren't very exciting/colourful - so far we have just been focused on sculpting our pieces out of different clays, and firing them, so there hasn't really been any decorating going on yet. But I will update you in a fortnight with photos of my finished creations.