Progress

Easter is over and on to another term.  I am enjoying the kickback time with our boys who have a few extra days at home but it plays havoc with my work habits.  This week I start teaching a class at Challenger TAFE in Rockingham, Print on Clay stuff, over three Thursdays.  I will try to grab some snaps of the progress there.

For the Introduction to Throwing class last term at CIT we spent the last class glazing and the students took to it like a duck to water.  They were the perfect students. I explained why not to double dip pots from one bucket of glaze to another  - to avoid contamination of the glazes and they were hyper vigilant about it.  Now their work is ready to be collected, and I hope they will be thrilled. Here they are signing their work before putting them in for bisque firing,.

Mega Monday

I spent Monday afternoon teaching a very compressed version of my one day Print On Clay workshop to Advanced Diploma Students at Central Institute of Technology, Perth.  I whizzed through my demos and explanations of processes and materials involved, in order to allow time to 'play' at the end of the session.  They were quick on the uptake.  Before I knew it, two and a half hours had elapsed and they got an hour of trying stuff out.   The students were so polite and friendly, especially Holly who made me a Vanilla Latte which I then allowed to go cold - and nobody yawned.  We are enduring another heatwave in Perth and it was no surprise to hear it reached 40C, decidedly uncomfortable!  I would have been comatose in their place. Happily, most of the students tried out a few of the techniques and seemed to enjoy themselves.  We covered Inkjet transfer, Underglaze Tissue monoprints, silk screened imagery via Tissue, via Plaster and open stock decals as well as iron oxide laser decals.  There were so many other things we could have done but I will keep some of them for a workshop later this year at The Potter's Market.

Tomorrow night I teach Wheelwork for beginners.  One girl asked me if I felt she could ever make a teapot, good to see her planning ahead.  I wonder will my Japanese lady with the broken fingers come back, I have a few ideas for her to try out.  Anyone else got suggestions of what to teach her?

detail of one of my lotus series vessels, copper glaze on Southern Ice clay