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Qotw: Are You Showing Us The Best Piece You Made When Starting With Pottery?


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Good morning my dear forum friends

 

My next guest is our one and only John Baymore (drum roll!! ...because in another life John was a famous drummer!). He asks us the following:

 

"Could we ask people who have been working with clay for at least 5 years, part time or full time, to post a picture of one of their best pieces from the FIRST ceramics classes that they ever took, whether that was a community ed class or college or with an apprenticeship or of course also if they are totally self-taught. I mean from their first 6 months of working with clay.

I think it would maybe be interesting to have a look back at where people started out..... and we can see where they are now... and if there were any "connections" that still showed in that path".

 

Oh yes, that would really be interesting to see and to discuss. John will be here to help me co-moderate and look at the pics that, I am sure, are rolling in like waves during high tide (that's my bit of poem for today...)

 

We are curious and are waiting patiently (NOT!) for the ice breaker....

 

Have a marvelous week everybody!

 

Evelyne and John

 

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First Mug

My first piece... 1st grade I believe. I saw it recently and saw that it was actually evenly thin.
 
I don't have pictures of my high school class work. There is some interesting stuff there. I had an art class every year.
 

Starfish Dodecahedron

From my beginning ceramics college class in the spring of 2011. This dodecahedron with starfish was made for my slab building project.

 

Iris bowl, Fall 2011

From my intermediate (aka throwing) college class, fall 2011. I had two months and probably about 200 hours on the wheel by this time. Yup, I learned to use the wheel less than 5 years ago (ok, only about 2 weeks less!)
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First pot I ever threw, in a community center class in 1994. Now it lives in my studio holding the stretch loops I use when packing/shipping.

 

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Edit to add one more photo. Although I think my first attempt at throwing is not too shabby, my first attempt at trimming is really embarassing. And yes the pot was accidentally busted at one point, and lovingly glued back together.

 

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Guest JBaymore

Just a quick note to say "thank you" to the folks that have "broken the ice" on doing this.  It is tough starting out something like this.  I think it will be interesting to see 'the journey', where it started, and if there are any "connections" in form, surface, inherent hand-skill touch, or whatever else might emerge.  Also to show the places that many of the more experienced folks on the forum started, as that might be beneficial to the newer folks to see.

 

best,

 

................john

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This was my very first project in clay. Can't seem to find a photo of the finished thing. It ended up with a third tile with a face, a person stuck in the surface of clay. Terracotta and glazed white, pretty nasty in the end. At least not my cup of tea.

 

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If we have 6 months this is my favourite thing I have ever made still to this day. Done in the first few months of college and weighs a ton.

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This was made in my second year of pottery while in High school.

I could not find my 1st mug but I know its still around as well as my 3rd grade pot.

This jug is dated 2/8/1971 and is low fire. XXX brew  carved into as relief on side.

Its a bit heavy but the handle is not broken and its made the test of time on bathroom tile floor all these years.I was 18 when I made this Jug. I'm still throwing pots today literally today.

I still make a jug every now and then.

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Here are 3 pieces from my first year in the VCU Crafts Dept./Ceramics. Cone 10 gas, made my own bodies and glazes. Probably around 1981. I would have been in my early 30's. 

 

And now, (age 69) here are 3 pieces from my last two firings this year (cone 6 electric, commercial bodies & glazes). There were over 34 years of no ceramics, no real art making at all, in between then and now. 

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This is the first pots I made in my 1st year in Art class here at Texas A&I University, Kingsville, Tx. It became Texas A&M University-KIngsville, in 1995-6. 

 

I had another one, I made after this, same time frame, but it broke :(  when I was putting my studio drywall recently. It was a tall vase with a flared top, thin neck and round base. About 7" tall. It weighed about 2#'s. I was so proud, lol.  :D

 

This one, I have pictured, is the first, after many failed attempts that day. It is 1" x 3". Here the best part; this 5 ounce beauty started out with about 2#'s of clay. Oh well. It's my first love, in clay.   :wub:

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OK, so here's one of the first pots I ever made, at the age of 17 in the early 90's. My art teacher didn't actually know how to throw, but she did bring in local artists whenever possible, to give demos. I don't want to think about the number of trapped air pockets that are in there :). It still makes me smile. I keep it to remind myself how far I've come, and to look at my own progress, and not engage in envy of the skill of others.

 

The next picture is of things I pulled out of the glaze kiln today. They're a bit further along.

 

Edited to add: the only person in my very first throwing class in college who was worse at it than I was failed out at Christmas. I sucked. Badly. But I loved it so very much. I'm not certain, because I'm not in contact with everyone, but I think I'm the only one that works regularly on the wheel anymore out of that starting group.

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These are some of the first things I made, but probably not the best, from that first class.  That would be a slab sculpture I did, that I don't have a photo of at the moment.  It was a college Ceramics I class.  I had worked with clay for once project, in high school, but it wasn't fired.

 
 
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my first thrown piece that was worth keeping was sent to my mother in law and is probably in a landfill somewhere  even though i thought it beautiful.  this one was made in the early 70s in my bedroom studio without a kiln and brick and board shelves that warped and fell down one night.  about 2am.  met my downstairs neighbor that day. :angry:

 

it hangs in my kitchen, complete with half an inch of dust.

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Guest JBaymore

 

Keep them coming folks........ this is interesting.

 

best,

 

...............john

 

When do we get to see yours?

 

 

Will do for sure.  Wouldn't have asked it if I was not prepared to do this also.  Have to sort thru photos or old archived boxes of pots.

 

best,

 

...............john

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I'm in the middle of a ten day event, so things are fairly hectic here,  http://www.hampshireopenstudios.org.uk/artists/newforest/item/three-just-potters

 

..........but I'm still searching, I've found one of my first pinch pots, my very first slabbed (and rolled round a tube) pot and my very first ordinary slab built pot, I don't know where to look for my first thrown pot, but I'll find one of my first keepers for sure.

 

Then I need to get the camera out, (don't wait up,  I've got pots to glaze and fire). -_- 

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I missed this one and it's a great topic! How lovely to see that we all started at similar places!

 

I've only been working with clay for four years, and throwing for two, so I don't really qualify. But in school I made exactly TWO pottery pieces. I'm seeing if I can track them down.

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..........but I'm still searching, I've found one of my first pinch pots, my very first slabbed (and rolled round a tube) pot and my very first ordinary slab built pot, I don't know where to look for my first thrown pot, but I'll find one of my first keepers for sure.

 

Then I need to get the camera out, (don't wait up,  I've got pots to glaze and fire). -_-

I started with ceramics about 12 years ago now, I've probably mentioned before that my wife had done it for about three years up to then and was constantly bringing home  small misshapen ugly objects - I wondered how hard it could be so had a go.

 

It was an evening class, run (in theory)  by Brockenhurst College who have a good ceramics dept - we were not at the college but at a community centre a few miles away in Lymington.

 

The course was only two hours per week (which is not enough) it was structured to some extent in that we first learnt how to make pinch pots, then coiled pots (never liked coiling) then slabbed pots of different types. This did teach us the basics of handling clay and how to join pieces together but that was about where the structured part stopped. Most of the class were happy with that, they weren't there to gain qualifications, just to play with clay.

 

Here's a few early pieces, obviously I've kept them, but I couldn't tell you why, (although I'm quite fond of the sculpture).

 

Early pinch pot, not the first but the earliest I can find.

 

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Lidded slab pot, rolled around a cardboard tube, this is very the first one of these I made.

 

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Built & lidded slab pot, again this is the very first of these I made.

 

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Exciting glazes eh!!

 

And an early(ish) sculpture - probably about four years in - (but that's not a lot @ 80 hours per year).

 

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