A mammoth undertaking

I went back to Eastnor Pottery last weekend to do some more work on the tagines I threw last time. As I suspected, the lids needed a lot of clay shaving off the tip of the cone to make them a reasonable thickness all the way up. But then they looked a bit stumpy, so I tried a technique I’ve not used before, called “throwing on top”. Basically, I centred the lid on the wheel head and stuck it in place with rolls of clay, then attached a smallish lump of fresh clay to the top of the pot. I then threw that to give the lid extra height and make the top a better conical shape. It looked a bit wobbly, and only two out of three attempts even sort of worked, but it’s good to try to stretch myself with new throwing techniques. It looked as if the bases and lids ought to fit together, but I’ll have to wait until they’re fired to be sure.

I had intended to do some more throwing in the afternoon, as my father has commissioned a lidded pot which I wanted to have a go at. But I was so tired after a very long hard week at work that my hand-eye coordination was getting dodgy. So I decided to call it a day soon after lunch, and was home snoozing in my chair by 2pm. I am getting very fed up with being so exhausted all the time. It’s not just my working hours that are limited by the amount of energy I have, but my hobbies too. Altogether, it’s a right nuisance.