Day One of the Tony Clennell Workshop

It was a long and exhausting, but very exciting first day of our 3 day Tony Clennell workshop.  He challenged us all to watch his demos and then copy his work as best we can, so we can learn his techniques.  Then after the workshop, we can do with them what we want, and personalize and improvise anything we learned.  So I took the challenge.

The first demo was four mugs, which we will trim and add handles to tomorrow.  This is Tony's set :

And my attempt to follow his lead :

Then three shallow bowls, to which we will add different tops tomorrow.  This is one of Tony's :

...and a couple of mine :

The third exercise was a body of a very large pitcher, and a foot for it.  I was so busy and tired, by that point in the class, that I didn't even take time out for photos.

It was a really fun day, and I am working with some talented and experienced potters, so I am just happy to be there, and to be able to keep up.  Unfortunately my favorite P570 white clay is out of stock, so I first tried some Columbia Buff clay, which feels really beautiful (like a sculptural clay), but when I threw it, the grittiness / grogginess was too much for me, it hurt my delicate skin.  (Read as : Yes, I am a wimp.)  Then I switched to B-Mix, and was struggling to center and open it, as it is MUCH stiffer than I am used to.  My only consolation was that others in the class were complaining about the same thing, so it was not just me.

I can't wait to return tomorrow, although I'm not sure how I'll have the energy to keep up at this rate, for three days.  We'll see.  One piece at a time.