Exploring ceramics
Last month I took a beginners' hand-building ceramics workshop with Rachel from BarrowPDX. I'd never done any sort of work with clay before, and this seemed like a great way to try it out!
The workshop was held at their NE Portland studio, which was set up perfectly for our small group of creatives. Rachel was a fantastic instructor - she guided us through the clay, the tools, the shaping, all with a great hands-on, "dive right in" approach.
I picked up my finished pieces a few days ago, and I am incredibly happy with how they came out! I had fun making some small tchotchke dishes, but the last two pieces that I made were more sculptural - and they hooked me on to continuing ceramics!
I've started taking some open studio hours at Daffodil Studios to play more with these wavy, abstract shapes - seeing how big and thin I can get with them, trying to go vertical with a similar abstract shape, leaning into the fragility and organic flow of the pieces while coaxing gravity to let me pull and push the clay how I want. The pieces I've made at the open studio hours haven't been fired yet, but I'm excited to see how they turn out.
