Week 5 – Throwing techniques II with Barbara Joy Peel

Course outline: We will develop and define our wheel throwing skills in order to make simple pottery forms. We will learn the methods of trimming pottery, jug spouts and perfecting handles, paying particular attention to finishing details.

Barbara Joy Peel explains what the outcome of this week should be. We all have to make a set of 4 horizontal forms (plates), 4 diagonal forms (bowls) and 4 vertical forms (mugs). They have to appear to be a set (1 colour of clay will help here) and we have to present them in 2 weeks on Friday afternoon.

This is really nice of her. Instead of stressing us out, she has actually created a nice relaxed atmosphere where no one is feeling pressured. Her demonstrations are very organized and on time (something I like). She knows what she is showing us and most important, if we want to see it 3 more times because it is just too cool, she will do it. She is putting her attention where it is needed the most.

We are all doing well. Everybody is past the first struggle of centering and even if we don’t get it centered all the time, half the time it is working. After you’ve passed that point, you have to start pulling it up and the clay has a will of it’s own; it’s going everywhere. But as the week goes by, we see mugs with decent handles, plates, bowls and interesting forms showing up on the 16 carts. We are weighing clay, throwing pieces, reclaiming some of it and we are learning how to wedge. She suggests we keep the first piece we make in the morning and the best piece of the day.

Barbara is showing us some really nice decorating techniques, how to make stamps, gives us formulas, tells us to “compress, compress, compress” and introduces us to “magic water”. Wow, our second week of throwing is over and it went really well. She taught us so much in a short period of time, it is great.

Yes, we are going to be potters. Maybe not now but later: it will happen eventually.

Sir Sandford Fleming College – Haliburton Campus.

Studio...

Our studio is now open on Saturdays. It took some negotiating with the principal but after some going back and forth about what we wanted (24 hr access) and what they could offer, we ended up with Saturday 10-4 and Monday – Thursday 5-9. Fridays we have to be out at 7. Classes start at 8.30 and finish at 4.30. The school opens at 7 am Mon – Fri.

It was an interesting process to go through. Here we are, 16 students taking a ceramic course, and only half of them are interested in being there A LOT. The other half has children or a life and go back to enjoy that in the weekends. But the ones who came from BC, Quebec, the US (or nearby but don’t have money to travel back and forth) are in Haliburton 24/7. So you might as well be in the studio. I mean, it is a beautiful area but if there is 6 feet of snow who is going to go for a walk? You might as well practice handles.

Barb Bolin (principal) understood all of this very well. And it wasn’t a matter of not wanting to let us use the studio, but the matter was money. There had to be someone in the building if the studio was in use. That means you have to pay that person. But the construction wasn’t finished yet and they ran out of money. It makes sense she would rather replace the plastic with glass in the entrance door than having 4 students making ugly handles and 2 textile students sowing their brains out. I mean, if the choice was up to me and I had to pick one I would choose the glass myself.

We were very persistent and she tried really hard to make it work and she did make it work. We were very thankful for that because if you look at it from a logical and economical point of view it is hardly worth considering. Hopefully one of us will become really famous and will be able to donate a beautiful piece to the school for the auction.

Week 4: Throwing I with Barbara Joy Peel.

Course outline: This week is an introduction to making pottery on the potter’s wheel. We will learn the basic characteristics and working properties of clay and how to center clay on the wheel in order to make simple pottery forms such as cylinders, bowls and plates. We will learn to operate the equipment and handle clay safely.

Our teacher is Barbara Joy Peel. She is a very nice woman that has been doing pottery forever and you can see it in her throwing. She throws, talks & explains all at once without making it sound like it is very complicated. Some of the students have never thrown before and some have but are not very good at it. So after the first group learns how to center we will all be on the same level. We are all so happy to finally sit behind the wheel that we’re not too concerned about what the outcome looks like. And we have two weeks, because she will also teach us Throwing II so we get our evaluation at the end of the second week with her.

It is very interesting to relearn how to center. I had this lesson on Cortes from this guy who needed some money and gave a clay introduction class. I am still very thankful that he taught these classes or I would have never thought about touching clay. After the lesson was over and I was not even near centering a ball of clay I got the books out. Which is a very difficult thing: learning how to center from a book (at least I think it is).

So when we were all sitting in front of Barbara and she was explaining about her body and hand movements it all made way more sense. Most of our class picked it up real quick. Now at the end of week one, we can all center 1-2 lbs of clay, and we manage to make it look like something you could possibly use for something.

Next thing she is teaching us how to pull handles. At once we all feel really sad. Because they look awful, they don’t stick and they are deformed. And not just from 2 students. ALL of us made AWEFUL handles. And we didn’t even like doing it. You can imagine: 16 students all pull 30 handles. They all look bad. That is 480 bad handles. Which was kind of funny. Because we also have some very persistent students in the class who like to do things right. And it is not happening right now. Not with the handles anyway. We need practice and we need lots of it.

Week 3: Drawing with Roger Kerslake.

Course outline: Introducing the basic techniques and methods of drawing, this course develops skills that are of critical importance in all aspects of the production of art. Through an exploration and application of the elements of design (line, space, texture, form and colour), composition, and using a variety of media and surfaces, students will examine the technical and aesthetic qualities of drawing two and three dimensional forms. Skills will be developed through the study of a range of subjects ( e.g. still life, life drawing, architecture, plant, natural forms and manufactured objects).

This starts as a disaster. Drawing is not one of my strong sides and that becomes very obvious when we have to draw boxes. They are setup on a table we all sit around it in a wide circle and sketch the boxes. Oh my god, this is bad. And there is NOTHING I can do about it. Next day we go outside and draw the school. I feel lost from the beginning of class until the end and have nothing decent on paper. The week continues and we draw plants, trees, sculpture, pots, gates, rocks and for 2 days we have life drawing.
The only 2 good things about this class is 1. our teacher Roger Kerslake who is a lot of fun and who doesn’t really mind if it looks like something as long as you are following the rules and direction he sends you in and try it. 2. We actually do learn a lot, it just doesn't necessarily shows on paper. Roger realizes too that he cannot teach someone to draw in 2 weeks. He is teaching us lots of interesting tricks and he gets us to try lots of different media, but some us were doomed from the beginning. We do have some stars in the class. The blacksmiths are definitely much better at this than the potters. MUCH better.
Thank god it is over after 2 weeks. Roger will teach us throwing IV and I am looking forward to that, but this drawing…..

It was a good class to have, but you know how it feels when you are very bad at something. You want it to end. Quickly.

Poor, poor blacksmiths, they have 2 more weeks of this. (with a different teacher)
We all feel sorry but happily get ready for our first throwing class.

Week 2: Basic Design with Stephen Hogbin

Course outline: The course introduces the basic elements and principles of two and three dimensional design. The visual contrast and elements, along with the quality of line, shape, colour, composition, structure and proportion, will be explored through a variety of applied exercises. An examination of examples from design and art history, the built and natural environment will be investigated as it applies to one’s own work. Through group work, research, discussion, critical thinking and two dimensional design projects, students will develop techniques which will allow them to use and manipulate design elements in order to realize specific design goals, solve problems, find solutions, and communicate ideas effectively.

Here we are: half of our ceramics class mixed with half of the blacksmiths. They are a happy bunch of mostly young guys (and 2 girls) with many good ideas and although some of them are a bit shy, as the week progresses we get to know them and their thinking pattern better. Lucky for me I am in a group that is into sharing ideas and discussing different opinions. Our teacher Stephen Hogbin (author of “Appearance & Reality”) is a quiet man who only speaks when it is needed and we have to really listen if he talks because he has interesting things to say, but the noise around us is quite loud (still construction) and sometimes his words get lost.
The outcome of our design course is amazing and we are all happy with the amount of work we accomplished.

We have design in the mornings and have drawing in the afternoon which is a good thing because I honestly don’t think I could design or draw all day. Very intense, both of the classes but in a different way.

Week 1- Handbuilding with Michael Sheba

Course outline: The focus of the hand-building course is to assist students in developing their skills required to make pottery using hand-building methods. Students will learn the basic characteristics and working properties of clay in order to successfully join clay and handle and dry finished pieces. Techniques covered will include pinch, coil, soft and hard slab, as well as the use of such aids as hump and press molds and the clay extruder.

Our teacher is Michael Sheba who is a ceramist from Toronto. He will teach us hand building and we are doing a raku firing at the end of the week. After April hands out our tools and paperwork, we start. The week is fun: we roll tiles, pinch cups, slab build pitchers, vases and boxes and create a non functional teapot with coil building. At the end we spend a day outside in the sunshine doing a raku firing, which is a perfect way to end week one.

Some of us are already exhausted. From coiling that vase according to a template (and had to redo it numerous times because the template didn’t come near fitting), from meeting new people, getting settled, being home sick and getting used to a new rhythm.

Our class is fun. All women, some early twenties, most early thirties and forties and a few early in the fifty. Most of us are new to all of this so we take it in with surprise and are happy with any result.

The class is like a chicken coop and if you would have walked in on day two, you would have thought we all knew each other for a long time.

Haliburton Ontario

Haliburton September 2004
Not a great start. Our car broke one week before I was to start the Ceramic Course at the Haliburton School of the Arts in Ontario so we had to buy a new one. Bye bye school money. My tooth gave up on me on my flight there: result: a few root canal treatments spread over the long weekend. When we found the place I was going to live and biked to the new campus to see how far it was, my European bike let me know that Haliburton had (ofcourse, what was I thinking) Canadian Roads and my tire popped immediately.

Great.
4 months….maybe I am not suppose to be here.

My partner leaves to go back to Cortes Island and I am jealous. I already miss the ocean, our garden and the feeling that the land we live on gives me.

I am not sure anymore what I am doing in Haliburton.

When I arrive on Tuesday to start, the new campus is sort of ready. There is someone who welcomes me and gets me to the right room and although there is still construction going on, the inside of the campus is almost finished. In the classroom there is one spot left so I take it. I'm sitting next to Christine who is a very funny woman from Toronto who originally came from France. I have a hard time understanding her and her jokes, but I am Dutch and nervous so I let it go.