I Flunked Ceramics

If they were passing out grades I'm sure I would have failed...thankfully they weren't..they were all too happy with the 300 bucks I gave them! lol! Part of my problem is that I didn't think it through and took the class at the worse time possible...right during tax season. With my jewelry business having growing pains and me having way too much on my plate between all that and homeschooling my son..I just didn't have the type of time I would have liked to put into this experience.

Oh well... So here is what I ended up with at the end of a 9 week course... one 2 1/2" tall 3 1/2 wide bead bowl and another tiny little pinch pot I"ve yet to pick up from class yet. I don't even know if it turned out. Pretty sad lol!




I must also say in my defense though..that it was only a 7 week course for me, one week my son had a visit to the emergency room and another, my wisdom tooth decided it needed to be pulled NOW!

This is my first thrown piece..and the only one I saved. We were told to cut some of the ones we made in half to see how even we were getting the sides. I wish I'd saved some intead..since I didn't realize I wouldn't be there enough to do more. (students were allowed to use the studio mon through fri 8 a.m. - 10p.m.) I didn't trim enough off the bottom foot part..it's really bottom heavy and thick. And the top part inside has kind of a sharp lip. But still I like :)... it's special...I keep beads in it of course! and I like how the colors turned out. We didn't have many colors to choose from that I liked and these turned out better and brighter then the samples showed.

I have done just a little with ceramics in the past. Not with pottery though. I used to work with an artist here who made ceramic jewelry. We did low fire clay and glazes which I found out is much different then the high fire stuff we used in my class. With the low fire glazes I was able to paint designs on the beads we hand rolled. But the high fire glazes..you aren't able to control them..they run a lot..so it's more of a dipping into the paint to glaze your piece rather then painting it on.

Here is a necklace created with some of the ceramic beads I used to make. I have no idea if I personally painted these exact ones..as both of our beads would get put together in kits when they were completed....but I wouldn't doubt if I painted a lot of them as I worked my little patooty off for her.


necklace with handpainted ceramic flower beads