Feel the Clay

More Saturday ceramics this morning. My new approach to throwing is going well. I was so caught up in throwing the perfect pot that I wasn't having any success. I now understand that you have to throw a lot of bad pots before you can throw a good one. Out of eight blobs I ended up with eight pieces, not great ones mind you, but nonetheless. My journey continues.

My First Plane!

I got my first hand plane this week- like my card scrapers, it has changed my life (kind of- makes me smile anyways). I spoiled myself with a Lie-Nielsen low angle block plane (#102). It is absolutely gorgeous and such a joy to use. It makes trimming joints flush and removing milling marks a breeze. Time to go practice, cheers.

Saturday Ceramics Update!

I pulled some handles for the cylinders I threw yesterday! Not a terrible attempt at some mugs.

Saturday Ceramics

I got back on the wheel this weekend and had better luck. I threw twelve 12oz. blobs and ended up with eight pieces, not too shabby. Last weekend I was trying to throw identical cylinders and ended up trashing most of them, so today I took a more 'just relax at the wheel' approach and it worked out for the best.

Ceramics

One of the perks of being a student is having access to a ceramics lab. Last semester I spent a lot of time throwing on the wheel and got okay at it- unfortunately, I have fallen out of practice and am slowly starting over again. I threw about 12lbs. of clay today and had little success. I will post more pictures as I get back in the flow.

Assembly Table

Today I had some extra time and scrap MDF; what does this mean? Torsion box assembly table! This torsion box is only 24"x36"x2 1/2"- though a flat surface this small could have been more easily achieved by laminating some sheet good together, I wanted to try my hand at this design. Using stop blocks and spacers made everything fit together tight and square. I mounted a clamp in the table (left side to suit the needs of a lefty) and wrapped the outside in some cherry I had around the shop. All in all, I'm happy with the way it came out. For the time being it will sit on saw horses; the final height is still to be determined.

Wooden Foldie Chair

This past summer I picked a wood folding chair up off of someone's curb. Besides a couple loose dowel joints and cobwebs, it was a pretty handsome chair. After some cleaning up, this chair became one of my favorite seats. To my dismay, it had (seemingly) seen the last of its days. I had to drill out and replace three dowels and add a strip of cherry to bring this piece back to life. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of the repair process, but here is the fixed chair.

Dorm life.