Pottery

I think it has been more than 10 years since I did any ceramic work. Then I saw a kid's pottery wheel on sale at Target last week and thought I buy it to try it out with Sonya and Clara. It runs on 4 C-size batteries and the batteries cost more than the wheel itself! I wondered how powerful a motor running on batteries can actually be...

The first step was to remove any trapped air bubbles in the clay and no better way then to throw the clay hard onto the table. Sonya and Clara initially were shocked to see how hard I slammed the clay onto the table but they got the hang of it and gave it a go themselves :) It is not everyday that mummy allows them to throw things hard onto the table...

With the air bubbles removed, I tried out the wheel first. I got pretty good shaping a cylinder on the wheel and managed to hollow the top. I think the whole wheel was just not heavy enough to be stable on the table and started shifting around. All that wobbling made my pot wobble too and soon after, it collapsed. I tried again but the wheel stopped suddenly. I think the motor might have died :(

A dead motor was not going to stop us so I suggested that we build the pots by hand instead. I showed Sonya and Clara how to make it and they helped me smoothed the surface while I shaped.

After my pot was done, Sonya wanted to try to make one herself. I gave her some clay and she started rolling out the coils.

Clara watched. I gave her the job of wetting the clay for Sonya and she was happy.

Sonya worked on her pot while I prepared dinner.

Here are the finished pots. Which one do you think is mine and which is Sonya's? I think Sonya did very well for her first attempt. She coiled and shaped and smoothed the pot mostly by herself. These are air-dry clay. Sonya can't wait to paint them when they are dry enough!

I think this is definitely another activity that I will do with Sonya in the future :)