the scriptorium

Monday, January 17, 2005

I'm taking a little break from homework while the little charley horse in my hand goes away. I'm making "pinch pots" for ceramics class. I've done 5 of 6, and my thumb is cramping right now. In case you don't know what pinch pots are, they are formed by taking a ball of clay about the size of a baseball and plunging your thumb down through the middle of the ball. Then you pinch the clay ball with your thumb and first two fingers while turning the ball evenly, working from the bottom of the pot to the rim. The finished product ends up looking somewhat like a beehive when turned rim side down to dry. (At least, that's what mine look like; I guess we'll see tomorrow if they look like they're supposed to...) They are supposed to be dried to "leather hardness", so I'm trying to get them done in time to dry as much as they need to before I try to transport them tomorrow morning. (How I'm gonna do that is yet another story...) Leather hardness is hard enough to hold their shape, yet not too hard to carve into. We'll see how they turn out. The teacher says he doesn't expect too much--in fact he said that this exercise is to let us see how ugly they will be so we can learn from our mistakes. At $8 per 25 lb. block of clay, I'm hoping not to make too many mistakes.

We didn't have classes today, because of the MLK holiday, so I worked a little longer than I normally would, then did a little shopping. I bought a couple of nice pairs of shoes at Shoe Carnival, since they were having a great sale. I've been needing some new sneakers for a while now; my old ones had holes in the toes. So I replaced them with a brand new pair of the same style for about $20 off retail. I also got a great pair of Skechers winter boots (sorry, couldn't find a link) for about half price. I ended up with shoes that would cost a total of $115.00 for $75.00. Pretty good deal, I thought. Anyway, I'm set for winter now, I guess.

Well, my hand seems to have stopped cramping for now. Maybe I can get one more pot pinched, eh?

posted by #Debi at 6:12 PM | permalink | 0 comments