Tuesday 12th November 2019

For CAS in Grade 11, I have joined the Pottery activity that meets every Monday after school from 3.10 to 4.20. I wanted to join pottery because I enjoyed the unit we did in middle school, and I wanted to try a new skill. Every week, I have tried to make a new project, and I try to plan ahead so that I have an idea of what I would like to do every week. I learnt this because the first week of pottery I had no idea what to do, so I made something random, which inevitably broke after it thoroughly dried later on. So far, I have made three coasters and a small flower.

(These pictures are the coasters, and the first ‘draft’ of the flower, this flower broke when it dried because other pieces of clay didn’t give the petals enough support, and so I remade it, the flower now is smaller, and has been fired in the Kiln, and hasn’t broken yet)

The coasters were easy to make, as working clay is similar to working with pastry or fondant in the kitchen, so I rolled out the clay, and used a bowl to cut out the circles. I then created designs on them, based on quotes, books and shows I am a fan of.

The flower was harder to make, as I needed to roll out the clay and freehand cut it, and the petals were hard to stick together and shape into a flower because it was big, this is another reason why when I made it again, I made the flower smaller.

These projects have now been fired in the kiln, so I have started to plan what colours I would like to paint and glaze them with. I started with the coaster with the quote ‘You were the sun… And I was crashing into you’ from one of my favourite books, ‘Carry On’ by Rainbow Rowell. I wanted to choose a colour scheme that went with the book, So I decided to use a glaze that was blue, but had specks of green and yellow in it.

Next session, after these first coats dry, I am hoping to go over the quote in black glaze.

I am enjoying pottery because it helps me build my creative skills. It is fun to work with clay and create something beautiful out of nothing.