In 2019, I picked up some clay and accidentally fell in love with the medium. In retrospect, I think
it was the malleability of it that drew me in. Much like painting, you can build up intense marks of expression for some phenomenal and unique pieces. When I first transferred into university, I had every intention of making painting my degree concentration. Now that I've gotten a full semester of a ceramics class under my belt, I'm thinking that I should blend the two for my art concentration... we shall see.
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Also back in 2019, I made this thing (picture right) and though, I had a completely different vision for the end product, I realized it had potential. For all it's flaws, my hook bowl was functional and it gave me a great idea for the future. I mainly made this to hold all my Furls crochet hooks because I've had a couple to roll, hit the concrete floor, and break much to my dismay. This bowl has been a cornerstone in my studio, especially since Furls changed their replacement policies early in 2021 😅.
Now, I've been able to live out my dream of throwing on a pottery wheel. I've had a blast learning all the things as well as experimenting with all the things that I've watched over the last few years. I had two main goals for this class...other than my degree requirement... and that was to a) successfully throw functional pieces on a wheel and b) to make a new hook bowl. I've accomplished both lol. I'm sorta proud of my beginner level progress as I have been spending countless hours outside of my class time in the ceramics studio just working on my craft.
If you want to see the other things that I've created this semester, you can check out my art Instagram!
So about a week ago now, I threw a couple of weighty bowls on the wheel. I think the greatest lesson I learned was that throwing 4lbs+ of clay is a little more challenging than the 1 - 2lbs that I'd been accustomed to. Nevertheless, I threw one 4.5 lb piece and one 3.5 lb piece. To my surprise, they BOTH turned out WELL! I was stoked but now out of the woods yet because I still had to trim them...which... ya know sometimes I get a little too into the process and end up breaking through my bowls...
The trim on both bowls turned out really well too and from that point, it was on. I got them to a perfect leather stage and while waiting on that, I etched out the rims where my hooks are destined to live. Initially, I intended to have 11 holes on my piece, however, I stuck with 10 due to time constraints. The other bowl, has 6 holes.
I've found new ways to firmly secure these rims and I'm super excited about that because as I perfect this design, it'll make production a lot more efficient. I want to state clearly here, I'm not affiliated with Furls or producing these necessarily for them/their products. These have been moreso a problem & solution deal for me, I just so happen to be a Furl hook fangirl. The hook holes are about the width of the thumb knuckle which holds my hooks just right.
The next step for these guys is to get them bone dry, sand them down, bisque fired, glazed, and fired again.
Over all I've been reinvigorated as it comes to art and I'm infatuated with creating again...so much so, that I started up a separate channel for my artwork. Originally I wasn't going to start uploading until I got 500 subscribers but, I got a little eager in the mean time. Now, I've been sporadically uploading as the inspiration or the requests come in. If you want to support my art channel, you can subscribe to ArtsyChiitos on YouTube. You can also send in requests and I'll do my best to get to those!
Now, I'm considering the possibility of getting a low end wheel and a small kiln for my home studio. It's something that I've been yearning for over the last few years so, I'm excited to progress toward that. I'm just going to leave myself a little checklist in this blog so I don't forget about what it is I need. 😅
I'm still deciding on whether to list my spare hook bowl here or to use it for a giveaway, I'm still a little burnt out over the last two giveaways though so we shall see by the time they're all glazed and pretty. What do y'all think? How do you store your odd-shaped hooks? Let me know in the comments below!
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