Scratch That

I made it to Clay Class tonight.

This morning when I looked out and saw the snow I decided that if it snowed all day I would maybe give it a miss this week. The half hour drive in the dark on snowy, narrow highways wasn't conducive to much excitement.

By the time the snow stopped around noon, I was almost disappointed, having steeled myself to miss the class, and having begun to look forward to doing something with Micah while Randall was at his meeting.

But go I did, in the end,  and it was all good.

Tonight the instructor showed us "Sgraffito", using soft red clay on the white we're working with.  She kind of showed us sgraffito and "inverted" sgraffito.  You can smear the contrasting clay on the surface of your piece and then scratch through it for a design to show.  The "inverted" method would involve scratching a design into your piece and then pressing the contrasting clay into the etched design. You scrape the excess contrast clay off, leaving the  clay filled design.

This week, well, yesterday to be honest, I got busy in the garage and made a pretty decent pinch pot and a small molded triangular plate. Tonight I finished cleaning/tooling them, and then I carved a Chinese motif flower on the plate.

I was working on the flower when she showed us the Sgraffito techniques, so I decided to try the "inverted" method on my plate. It worked pretty well.

It was very relaxing to be carving again.

I've missed it.

This week I'll do some carving on the nearly finished pinch pot and start working on next week's class project.

It's good to hang out with potty people again!