Pottery [Is Hard As] Rocks

So a month ago my buddy and I signed up for pottery class and tonight was session 2 of our 6-week course. Let me tell you, pottery is so much harder than it seems. For starters the clay itself is not as fragile and mushy as we thought it'd be. You actually have to exert force on that thing to get it to take any shape or form. We're both there dandole golpes and it'll just lay there on the wheel refusing to do what we ask.

Last Monday I was able to make a tea bowl somehow (with help from the teacher of course), but my friend just ended the class sans bowl and sans any patience for clay. In fact, I'm pretty sure she said "Ok, let's start over and turn this into one biiiig lump" no less than 4 times that day.

So we thought it'd be a good idea to go during the studio's weekend practice hours on Sunday (Lord knows we remedial kids need it, and it doesn't help that we're the only two newbies in our class) and try our luck getting a feel for throwing on the wheel. And do you think we accomplished anything then? No! The clay was way harder than rocks and without any professional guidance our lumps of clay were sliding all over the place and much too tough to even shape. After 20 mins my friend threw in the towel and called it a day. "Sometimes you just have to know when to quit," she said today. "We could've been there til tonight's class and still have nothing." I agree. I was getting pretty frustrated myself.

I mean prior to this I thought, "Man, it's clay! How hard could pottery possibly be?" Plus, I grew up on Play-Doh and that stuff's just begging to be molded.

Well thankfully tonight's class was a bit better. We had a substitute for the night who showed us some different techniques to use and the clay was ten times more workable than it was yesterday. I'm getting a bit more confident on trying to make a bowl without giving the teacher too many "help me" glances and finished out another piece. My friend on the other hand, well, let's just say she's getting there and made great strides today. She even managed to produce a makeshift bowl. Who cares if it's for her dog, Charlie?

Really, I'm just practicing for when my Ghost moment arrives.