Ceramics - Part 2

So I finally got the last few pieces from the ceramics lab.  For those of you that don't know, getting a piece from start to finish is a lot of time and work.  First, you have to make the piece.  You usually want the clay to be fairly wet when you do this so you can mold and shape it as much as you want (although there are a lot more things to take into consideration, but that's the basic idea).  After you finish making whatever you're making, you have to let it dry.  When it's dry enough, you fire it (bake it) in these huge, hot ovens called kilns.  To fire it takes a few hours and lots of technical stuff I don't understand.  After the first firing, your piece is called bisqueware (before the first firing it's called greenware) and at this point, you can put the glaze on it.  Glaze is the covering to pieces that gives it that glassy look and also usually adds the coloring. Kind of like paint that you have to bake on to the piece.  So after you put the glaze on, you have to fire it in the kiln once more.  And after that, all  you have to do is clean up the bottom and voila'!  You're finished!

So here are 2 more bowls that I made.  Actually, I'm only like 80% sure these are mine because in the ceramics lab, there are so many things in there and it's hard to remember exactly what yours looked like and it always looks different after they fire it so anyways, these are most likely the pieces that I made!

I know, I know you are all very impressed.  Well, I do have a surprise for my mom and sister....
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TA-DA!!!!!!!!!!

The swan has made it's final appearance!!!!

For those of you that weren't in class with us, I made this pretty much the first or second day of class.  It took me a couple weeks to finish because I had to leave early to go to work and didn't have as much time to work on it. When I finally finished it, I fired it for the first time.  That was the last I saw of it for awhile.....I kept looking for it on the shelf's, but I couldn't ever find it.  And when I did see it, I was usually doing something else and would forget to do something with it later.  This went on for pretty much the whole 2 months we had class.  My mom would send me a text saying that she found it and left it by my other bowls, but I couldn't find it when I would come in the next day.  But when I came in to the lab one day after work to finish up some other pieces, I found it!  I glazed it and now it's sitting on my kitchen table.  My swan finally made its way home!