My last throwing class

This past Saturday was the next to the last of our throwing classes. And I don't plan to go next week, because next Saturday is the Halloween party, and I just can't see spending any of my time that day getting messy or doing anything that might make me tired. The plan for next Saturday is to have my costume laid out and ready to go, made sure the map and directions to the place are printed up, make sure that I have toll money and such ready to go, get together anything else that I have decided to take, maybe put my hair up in curlers, and then spend most of the day watched DVDs until such time that I need to get dressed and put on makeup and such.

I just don't want to take the chance that I'll end up going to class and getting mud in my hair or maybe I would slip on some clay or water spilt on the floor. No thank you. I'm going to put my feet up and watch TV.

So Saturday should have been my last class, cause I have already gone in to make up those two hours that I will miss next Saturday. But he was talking to the rest of the class and saying how since this was his first six week non-credit class and since he had not really thought it all out and written a schedule of what needed to be done by when, he had decided that will we are not allowed to spend any additional time at the school throwing new pieces, we are allowed to come in and finish up the pieces that we've already started. So that was good, and I managed to do a couple more pieces that I sort of like. I can go and finish them up next week and the week after that.

It is sort of sad that the class is ending now that I am just starting to get the hang of it. It does still take me too long to center sometimes, and I do still have trouble with the lifting part, and I often start out trying to do one thing and then just have to go with the flow and make something else. But at least now that awful thing of getting something so lopsided that pieces of it come off of the wheel now only happens about every third time, and I just grab some more clay and start over. It isn't the end of the world if that happens once in a while, or if I end up with a shorter wider bowl than what I had pictured in my head when I started.

There's a guy in class who is really getting good at this. And it is his first time doing ceramics. He used to be a carpenter, so I'm wondering if he has done a lot of work on a lathe and that has helped him. He says it is from watching a lot of how-to videos. Anyway, he was already making little bottles and vases, while the rest of us were still having trouble with bowls. He missed last Saturday's class. I hope he is okay.

So now of course I want to take another class, which I said that I would not, at least until I get a job or maybe win some money in the lottery.

But I'm trying to not think about that. I'm trying to just enjoy what I have left to do. In a week or so I will go to the lab and try to learn to finish up the leather hard pieces and then set them out to dry. I'll start with the pieces I like the least, just in case I really screw up. Then if that goes okay the dried pieces will get bisque-fired and I can pick out some glazes. I'm not really in any hurry about that part. If they don't get done this semester, I can wait.

Just seems a shame to stop throwing right when I think I'm starting to figure it out.