Making Pottery at Home

Yay, I've got clay at home and the best rainy weather for crafting, so I couldn't wait and started right away with a bowl (of course) made with the mould I borrowed.

Now, with no time limit I can work as slowly as I need to, which is the biggest advantage compared to the class. The biggest disadvantages are my lack of tools and of a proper working space. I mess around in my kitchen and it seems to be inevitable to produce a lot of fine dust, that wouldn't bother me in a studio but isn't the best of things I could think of in a kitchen.

But it's extremely fascinating for me to finally see the stages the clay goes through in the process of drying. So far I only experienced the material in the softest state and a week later completely dried. Now for the first time I got to know what I found described in books as the leather-hard stage, when the clay is still flexible but can be handled without deformation and is already as hard that touching it doesn't leave fingerprints on the surface and it even can be burnished to a smooth shine. I touch and look at and turn around my creation all the time, as everything is so new to me and I'm about to get a better feel for the clay.