I Was All Stoked To Pick Up My First Glazed Piece Only To Find Out My Instructor Is A Lazy Bum And Didn't

I was all stoked to pick up my first glazed piece only to find out my instructor is a lazy bum and didn't fire anything. Rats! But to make it up to us, he let us try the wheel today. This bowl/vase thing is the first thing I made. Not too bad for a first try, right? Well, I guess technically my first experience was the Pocahontas Pottery Wheel my parents got me as a kid (which I begged for, then discarded), but I'm willing to overlook that if you are.

This one is going to be a mug, I'm told:

Laguna, 2 hour class

Dayna came over again and we took a 20-minute break from our cookie-dough-and-Gilmore-Girls marathon to make Gumby and Pokey, because we figured it was just one step above making a snowman and a snake.

(Dayna whined a lot about how bad her horse was, but I think he's cute.)

Gumby, Super Sculpey and Sculpey III, ~20 min.

Today, just a few miles down the street from my apartment in San Francisco, Judge Walker overturned Proposition 8. I'm a little teary-eyed thinking about how happy I am for all my friends here in California who will soon have the right to marry the people they love. So, because I was feeling all mushy and sentimental today, I made this little rose. (But I'm still me, so I photographed it like the cover of a trashy romance novel. Obviously.)

I know there's still a long road to travel until everyone in this country enjoys the same freedoms, but we got a little bit closer today. Feels pretty good.

Super Sculpey, ~40 min.

Hoo boy.

So, a few things. One, I haven't sculpted in a month and it shows. Two, now that I'm back to work full time, it's really hard to put any effort into making something every day. Three, I really hate self-hardening clay. And four, when your sense of proportion completely falls apart, fix it with googley eyes.

Berit Hildre's Modeling Heads and Faces in Clay is a quick read, really informative, and makes sculpting look way easier than it is. (At least for me.) I'm not too proud of this little dude (I named him Bert), but hey, I made something! That's a start.

Marblex, ~45 min.

Look, if you want something every day, some of them are just going to suck.

Sculpey III, ~15 min.

Today was an exercise in good intentions gone awry. I tried to get this one done early in time to catch the light, and in the process of transporting everything across the street I dropped my camera, my tools, the figure itself, and my palette (the latter of which shattered), and after all that I didn't even get the shot I wanted. Oh well.

I was going for "mermaid being blown out of her aquarium/bowl by a strong wind." What, you're saying that doesn't translate?

Super Sculpey, ~60 min.