Yesterday, was glaze day in the classroom here at LaMeridiana. For me, it was all a bit overwhelming. Not because, I feel incapable of glazing my ceramics work. I felt overwhelmed by 14 people doing it at the same time. Everyone was polite, doing a dance in and out from the glazing area and the spray booth.
Antionette was involved every step of the way; helping students, letting people spray glaze on to their delicate work of very thin porcelain, and providing support. The spray gun’s pressure was enough that it could send the piece flying across the booth. Franco, the studio technician, was very patient throughout the long day. Cleaning plugged spray guns, answering questions, and mixing up glazes.
As a potter, I know that glazing my work, takes just as much time as forming it from that lump of clay. At the end of the day, I can walk away feeling pretty good about my long hours or just “eh, we will see”. I have taken enough courses to know that outcomes in a classroom will vary. It’s not my studio. Not my wheel or tools. Not my preferred clay. Not my studio in which I can be free to think, process, and make. BUT, the classroom does open my eyes and send me down a new path, maybe just a tiny jog. This small “ah-ha” is enough to give me the push into new artwork that has me walking into my studio with sketches, questions of “what if?”, and the necessary desire to try again.
