To continue with my challenge this year to try and do different things, I signed myself up for a pottery class in Kyoto. It was pretty fun, and I think because it's currently Winter here, I was the only student in the class.
The teacher has been doing pottery for the past 9 years, and she was pretty amazing. She made something first, to show me how it's done. First you wet your fingers in the bowl. She said that you have to keep your fingers wet as the clay is quite fragile. You put your feet on these blocks so that you can rest your elbows on your knees. The instructor helped build the foundation of my bowl so that I could do the rest.
Then you use your thumb and your middle and ring fingers on your left hand to gently pull the clay upwards. This makes the clay into a vase-like shape. Then you put the fingers of your right hand inside the pot, and the fingers of your left hand on the outside, and gently widen the pot. Finally, you use reindeer skin and a sponge to smooth out the clay.
Here's my finished product (it's meant to be a rice bowl).
The workshop offered to ship my bowl back to Australia, so I look forward to seeing it arrive! I asked that she put a teal glaze on it, so it isn't going to match any of our crockery, but I don't care, because I made it!
The pottery class also happened to be where one of Kyoto's most popular shrines happens to be. So while I was doing the pottery class, MrFodder did some exploring. It really was a beautiful place, and we ate some pretty delicious food!
MrFodder managed to find an unfortunate example of Engrish.
No comments:
Post a Comment