Continuing with My Pierced Vessel and Much More In Class Today

I was able to trim the foot on my pierced vessel today (I'm calling it my tribute to Eric Stearns, since his work was the inspiration for this attempt).  So tonight I brought it with me to my son's soccer practice, and sat in the car, cutting little squares...  I continued again when I got home.  I think it is progressing really nicely - what do you think? :

I was trying to hold the vessel very carefully as I carved, not just with my left hand, but cradling it in my left arm, and holding it against my body, so I wouldn't put too much pressure on any particular spot.  So now my left arm and neck are a bit stiff, but the result was worth it.

With only 7 diamonds left to cut out, I broke one of the connecting segments, but I think I was able to patch it successfully with paper clay (I mixed clay from one of the cutouts with water and a bit of paper towel).  I'll find out soon enough.

Now I will be nervous about returning it for the bisque firing.  After so much work, I'm scared to break it.

Our second class went very well.  A bit slower today, since I was finishing up pieces from last time.  Such as adding the handle (it took 3 attempts before I got it right!) to this beer stein :

Our teacher, Jay, had a sprig mold available, and I couldn't resist adding a sprig to the stein also.  I tried to pick a "manly" sort of design, as many of the others were a bit too floral for beer drinking.

I threw 5 new pieces, in addition to a rough "head" for my sculptural piece (not pictured) :

On the right is a vase with what I hope will be a matching lid, behind it, for my raku drop in (I will be allowed to fire 3 pieces).  If all goes well, I will apply terra sig and prepare it for horsehair raku.  I think that could look pretty awesome.

The one at front is also potentially a vase for raku, but probably I'd glaze that one.  I threw it with a double rim, which I hope to pinch into an interesting pattern.  We'll see.

On the left is a piece which I threw with a very dramatic shoulder, partly experimenting with how far I could push the wet clay before it would flop.  Partly because I thought some interesting pattern could be created from this.  Stay tuned.  I'll probably experiment with it a bit more next week.

At the back is a piece which was thrown as a very big vase (I didn't want to make the pitcher which our teacher demo'd, but still wanted to make the basic bellied out shape).  But it ended up wonky around the belly (my bat-mate moved on me somewhere during the throwing process), and wonky around the rim.  So I decided this would be a great piece to alter and carve, somewhat in the style of Jennifer McCurdy, although not quite as elaborate.  I am planning to continue altering and playing with it next week, but I am already pleased with the result so far, and got a lot of comments from people in the afternoon workshop :