April 2005 Archives

Now I can fly, but I can't figure out how to land.

I am finding that now that my pot-throwing technique is improving, I am still having difficulty in the area of removing a finished piece from the wheel head. I have considered going back to bat-throwing, but at this time I feel like I can't do that, because my wheel head and I have become so familar. When my Artista wheel first arrived, I was so scared of the bare wheel-head, it looked so cold and stiff, like it wasn't meant for clay. I guess the whole shiney-metal thing threw off my feelings about it at first. Now that I have used it for a while, it is getting that very nice, well used, look.

Lately I have been trying so many different ways to gracefully remove a piece from the wheel head, but it isn't easy. One technique I have eliminated is the water-as-lubrication method. None of my pots seem to respond well to that, especially not the terra cotta. The wire seems to be about the best, it releases the seal between the clay and the head, but yet still doesn't really get it going that well. After about 5 or 10 strikes with the wire the piece will begin to move, but it still won't slide gracefully off the wheel and onto a bat. Thats another thing I am having issues with, no one has made anything like a curved bat that will fit evenly against the wheel head for recieving finished pieces. I know I can't be the only potter with this particular issue. I was majorly pissed the other day when one of my round pieces became oval as it was moved from wheel head to a bat with a gap of the thickness of the wheel head between head and bat.

I have a lot of work to do before being as competent at the wheel as a professional potter. There are so many different techniques to learn and so many situations that could occur while I am working with the clay. At the moment my focus is on diversifying the types of clay I use, so that I can become more familiar with the medium of my art.

Nothing too fancy, but I like it.

Straight across from the wheel, typical observer point of view

This is more from the point of view as I see a piece when it is on the wheel. The splash pan is visible in this shot, I am a little messy, but I have seen worse.

This is what my typical work area looks like. Just me, my wheel, my stool and my tool(s).

This particular evening I was in the mood to stray from my norm, so I went with a slightly different clay, this is some yellow clay that I keep on hand. This is the first time ive really tried it. It is fairly grainy, but not bad overall, and seems to recover well from potter's errors.

I have only 3 more lectures left in my MWF classes, and only one left for my Thursday class (Plato). That means I have 3 hours left with each course.

I have changed a lot in some aspects since August 2004, but in some ways, not at all. I have rejoined some old hobbies, and found a few new ones. My preconceptions about most things academic have been shot down fully, but yet I have picked up a few new ideas about how to approach my overall academic life.

I am still about as non-social as I was in August, but at least now I am learning how to approach potential relationships (Life = Interpersonal Communications Lab?). Today I actually spoke to someone in my Microeconomics class, his name is Craig. We spoke for about 40 minutes after class about the class itself, as well as some of our common technical interests, philosophical interests, etc. Why do these people stay silent until the last few days of a course? That is sort of like last Thursday, I got the opportunity to talk to Austin finally. He is really cute, but also has a very complex mind philosophically. I have never seen someone digest Plato/Socrates the way he does. He gets passed the BS that goes on and extracts only the essential theory being passed, then he considers it and determines for himself whether it is valid or complete bullshit. Austin is more of an Aristilian thinker (like me), which means that he is more likely to relate to physical things that humans experience (we will for the moment disregard Plato's theory of perception). In accounting I have Kent, Chuck and Vanessa, but they were compulsory, so they don't really count (it is helpful for getting to know people when you are forced to know them). In Calculus there is Robert, we barely know each other, but we acknowledge each other and have a basic friendly relationship. Wow, that was fast, I covered everyone in a single paragraph. It is definately time for me to break out of my shell and start talking. Friends don't just drop out of the sky, they take work and maintainaince.

I guess the point of this little entry is to state that I have made it through my first year of college and I survived. I have an entire summer ahead of me to teach myself how to be social, and maybe learn to be nice to the friends that I already have. Fall 2005 will approach very fast, when it is time, I intend to be ready this time.

This piece almost didn't happen. It started off as an overly moist ball of white stoneware that was sliding on the wheel. By the right combination of forces the piece stablized and snapped into PERFECT CENTER. That means that a hand pressed against the roating side wasn't moving and neither was the one placed on top... no wobble, no flinch, not even the slightlest rub.

I thought my luck with the piece was going to be limited to that event, but by some miracle the piece remained centered for the entire event of its creation. The sides are all even with the base, no excess weight is on the base. What I personally enjoyed most about the event was the ridges that formed in the base after I removed the moisture from the clay with a spounge.

In this image you can see the details of the ridges that were formed, also, observe how circular the piece is. The piece is almost void of any personality, but yet, look closely, you can see little hints of the fact that I worked on this piece with my own two hands.

From this view, the shape is a little more clear and the sides are visible from a slightly areial perspective.

This is my favorite image of the piece, because it shows the imperfections in it, although, even the imperfections are uniform. The large version of this image is of poor quality because I had flash off to allow the shadows to cast properly over the piece. The piece has several rise positions where it is obvious that i worked the piece upward from a ball of clay and into this bowl shape that stands several inches high.

All of my academic life I am used to there being certain people I can count on to make me feel "at home" in my curriculum. I was worried that I wouldn't find this at UNCC after last semester, but I am now begining to find my niche and fit in with certain people and breaking down my own walls of fear about things. I am at UNCC for 3 - 5 years (or 6 if you ask the registrar; Degree/Decree Expected Date: May 2010). This isn't a small part of my academic life, this is just the begining of phase 2. During Fall 2004 I was very concerned and almost alarmed about the fact that I didn't really know any instructors or how to properly get to know them (or any of the students for that matter). The answer to how to get to know them... simply let it happen naturally. It doesn't take a small class to get to know an instructor, and small classes don't really help with it at all. This semester I commited myself to a minor in philosophy (because I like the way it makes me feel), with that commitment comes the acceptance of a limited set of instructors to complete it with. I have sort of accidentally selected Dr. Presler as my instructor of choice. Dr. Presler seems to understand me and I like her teaching style.

When I am in an academic environment I seem to attach myself to certain people, not sure why, but what I do know is that I get this feeling of belonging once that attachment is made. I have that attachment now for my minor, just days after it being declared and confirmed.

As for my major, I have selected Mrs. Sara Scott. I will likely only have her for another course or two at most, so I can't become too attached, but I am also getting along well with my advisor/director, Dr. Bruce Long. In the past 2 weeks I have began talking to Mrs. Scott more and more. She isn't as much of an air-head as believed during day 1.

I can't say for certain if my isolation felt previously was because of the department I was attached to or not, but what I do know is that I feel right at home in the College Of Information Technology.

Recently I have been feeling particularly isolated from my fellow students, and im finding that this is making me quite uncomfortable. I am trying to make contact with people, specificly Robert in Calculus, Kent and Chuck in Accounting, and Waseem in Business Programming.

Off I go into my world of academics and people who will likely disperese before I get up the courage to really get to know them.