About

A pottery wheel with a small bowl on it, placed inside a red, vintage outdoor pottery wheel, with a rusty wooden table above and plants in the background.

My First Pottery Wheel.

Person mixing gray clay in a white plastic bucket, surrounded by unbaked clay squares and a large open cardboard box containing clay tools and supplies, on a dark carpeted floor.

Reclaiming Clay In The Living Room.

A ceramic mug on a spinning pottery wheel in a ceramics studio, with plastic sheeting and pottery tools around.
A plastic chair, a mini-tub with a spinning wheel, a mirror, and various supplies covered with plastic sheeting in a room being painted or renovated.

As you might have guessed, I’m currently obsessed with glaze and throwing pottery. Throwing hasn’t always come naturally to me. Over the past four years, I’ve been learning and practicing on and off. Often, my pots would be too heavy, too thin, or splattered across the wall ( I won’t even mention trimming). This year has been a real turning point.

My love for ceramics grew slowly. When I was 16, during lockdown, I bought some air-dry clay and started experimenting with hand building and sculpting. Soon after, I found an old kick wheel on Facebook Marketplace that didn’t work. With a little help from my crafty dad and some WD-40, we got it running. Without any prior knowledge, I taught myself to throw by watching YouTube videos and using air-dry clay, although it was tricky and never quite worked out.

Eventually, I decided to study Design Craft at UWTSD because of my strong desire to learn ceramics. While I experimented with glass and enamel during my studies, ceramics always drew me back. I also focused on learning about glaze in my last year. It was an intimidating area for me, but I decided to dive in anyway, sparking a new passion for experimenting. At the end of my first year, we sold the old kick wheel and used the money to get a smaller new wheel. I kept it in my uni house living room, which my housemates kindly allowed, even though it looked like a bit of a slaughterhouse. That’s where I got a lot of extra practice.

Now, finishing uni, I have a strong ambition to keep making, throwing, and glazing. I’m planning to work and save up enough money to buy a kiln so I can create independently and get all the materials I need to keep exploring glaze. I would LOVE to have my own studio eventually—a personal space where I can create, but also an open studio where other potters can come to work.

New Pottery Wheel In My Uni House Living Room.