Wednesday 29 June 2016

Ceramic bird feeder

A few weeks ago, wonderful mum and I went to a ceramic workshop at Katherine Fortnum Ceramics in Market Harborough, Leicestershire.  Her workspace was lovely, the other 3 participants were lovely, Katherine is lovely and a very good teacher, but I was ill.  I was having a really bad time of it and perhaps I shouldn't have gone, but I thought it might cheer me up.  Hmm.  When will I ever learn than depression can't be cheered up.



We were making a ceramic bird feeder in the shape of a bird.  Now, I only get pigeons in my garden and I don't want to feed them, so I thought I'd just use it as somewhere to put pretty things on display.  We were using earthenwear clay and started with a big ball, flattened on the bottom.  We added a tail.



And a head.  At this point, things started to go wrong as my tail kept sinking, I held it up with a plastic bag, but I should have made it smaller and thinner.



Next we started to carve out the wing shape using the tool you see in the photo above.  We had to go in from both sides and carve very carefully.



After this I have no more photos as at this point both my head and tail started to fall off and I got frustrated and upset with it.  I went outside to have a ciggie and Katherine fixed it the best she could.  When they were finished, we glazed them, but again, I have no photos.  

I think we collect them in a week or two so I'll show you the results then - I'm expecting my head and tail to have fallen off and possibly for the body to have collapsed...

7 comments:

Rachel said...

Yes, mild cases of depression can sometimes be temporarily-distracted-from, but the real thing is pretty all-encompassing. That's when I start looking for something that involves no skill and no decisions....

Bethany said...

Haha--that's exactly how mine would have turned out, too, if I were to make something like this! Once, in college, we were papier-macheing over balloons for some reason I forget. We left them to set, and the next week everybody had these beautifully hardened spheres. My balloon deflated what looked like instantly, and I had a flat hard mass of stuff. Our professor used me as the "example" -- it was something about arts and language being integrated in a classroom (I was an elementary education major), and she explained that there'd always be that one kid who had a project that went belly up. I felt like such a goof then, but I laugh about it now.

Rhona said...

Thinking of you and hoping that the depression doesn't last long.
Don't be too hard on yourself about the bird feeder...it may turn out better than you think...and if not, at least you tried!

Jane said...

Think we all get projects that do this to us, it will be unique. If anyone asks, it's a piece of abstract art

margaret said...

do hope your bird is still in one piece when you get him back, and also that the depression is starting to lift, unless one has been there people tend to struggle with understanding depression

Sarah in Stitches said...

I'm so sorry you weren't feeling well! Hoping it doesn't turn out as bad as you think...

Melody said...

So sorry that you were not feeling well, sending you a big hug