One of my most recent adventures has been taking a pottery class. My amazing Japanese landlady does some pottery, and the kitchen is full of gorgeous dishes that she has made herself.
Recently her pottery teacher started working from a new studio and so I decided to get my hands dirty!
Apparently work on the wheel is much more difficult and less sexy than the movie Ghost made it look, so I had to start with basic clay skills, and my first project was making some monkeys!
Stage 1: 3 pieces of clay = 3 potential monkeys
Stage 2: After adding a face bump, some Elvis hair, and lambchops we reached The Oompa Loompa stage:
Stage 3: I drew some faces on them, and then added some stinkin' paws!!
As you can see, Monkey #1, or as I like to call him, Stubby, is absolutely shocked at my mad clay skills. Check it!
At this point the teacher told me that my tallest monkey had arms that were too scrawny and would likely fall off when fired in the kiln. Even though I thought that would be funny as hell, I decided that it would be preferable to have all the monkeys survive their time at several hundred degrees Celsius. So, I had to perform some arm replacement. I probably shouldn't have let the other two watch the procedure. They did not seem to0 happy with the scene:
But I rebuilt him, and made him better with the strong arms my teacher made for me. Next, I added some lines to shape legs, and a stubby tail. Then I hollowed them out as much as possible and put them on the shelf to be fired!
The coolest thing about the pottery studio is that it is next door to a meeting place for Sudanese refugees. And, on Thursday nights when I do pottery, they gather next door and play music. I don't know what they are singing, but it sounds joyous, the men sing a few lines and then the women respond. It sounds like there are some djembe drums, a drum kit, and a keyboard or synthesizer. It's truly amazing.
1 comment:
Ooh, I love craftiness. Your monkeys are wonderful!! I always get weeped out by clay b/c I have such dry hands anyway and it makes my hands feel more dry. But your project looks so fun. Good little monkeys.
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