Mrs. Webb Learns Pottery. Sort of.

All of this school year I have had the knowledge that I'd need to teach clay to my students at some point bugging me like an itch.  The kiln has been lurking in a back room under a layer of dust, mouse droppings and black widow cobwebs the whole time- mocking me.  It's not like I live where I can bring in a local expert to teach me and/or the kids, either.  This is a you're-on-your-own-lady sort of problem.  Well, not completely, my husband has been encouraging me and looking things up for me.  Bless the man.

Today I had a spare hour and tried the wheel again.  It's a kick wheel and every attempt had failed till today.    

It took me years to get brave enough to learn to use a pressure cooker.  I am a confirmed coward, see? If it can blow up, you can count me out.  I'll be outside quavering.  And I had to figure out a great big scary kiln.  What if I ruined all the kids hard work?  What if I burn the school down?  (Okay, that thought wasn't entirely unpleasant) However, the thought of getting electrocuted was also hovering there. 

After it dried out a bit I decided it needed decorated. It may look childish, but let me tell you, this silly little thing is a major victory.

Finally, I dragged the boxes of clay out from under my desk and showed them to the kids.  I confessed that we'd be learning this thing together.  It might work and it might not.  They weren't even fazed. "Let's do this thing, what are you being such a chicken about, Mrs. Webb" was their attitude.  So we did.We learned to wedge our clay.  We learned pinch pots, then coiled ones and some of them even made art pieces.  Then the dreaded day came when it was time to fire the green ware. See how I just use these clay terms off like I know something?  Yeah, that's me.  A clay teacher. No big deal.

A pinch pot, an insignificant thing to be so much fun

Except it was.  I loaded the kiln between running into the other room to read another web page about firing for complete idiots.  And then turned the thing on with my eyes closed.  And it turned on!  It hadn't even occurred to me the dang thing might not even work.  Thankfully, it it did.  And does.

All of our glazes are total mysteries as we have no charts and most of them are no longer made.  This one sounded so pretty on the label.  LOL, It looks like I painted it with poo...

In fact, I'm writing this from my classroom because we are on our third, yes you read that right, third firing so far.  And so far, the school is still standing and I am, as you can see, alive and kicking. And I'm learning to use clay. The first things I made are simple and pretty juvenile, but I'm getting better at it. And I absolutely love it.  Who knew?  The coward triumphs!

Thanks for stopping by- Alice