One time only please

I taught a beginners throwing class on Saturday evening. “Saturday evening?” you say. “But the studio doesn’t offer weekend classes, let alone evening weekend classes!” you exclaim. Well, I got an e-mail from Dave (studio owner), asking if I would like to teach a beginners class for 2, and if I wanted to, to contact the lady herself and work out the details etc... Not being one to turn down a possible money making venture, I said yes. Well, about a month goes by between my initial e-mail to her, and our finally managing to work a date out that worked for all of us.
Turns out that it was something she wanted to do with her husband for their wedding anniversary. I guess the traditional gift you give for a 9th wedding anniversary is pottery. Both she and her husband thought up this idea independently and searched out where to do pottery classes (neither knew what the other was doing I guess). They actually both called Dave asking about one time only classes. It seems they ran the gamut of places that they thought would offer classes, called everyone they could think of looking for this type of thing, as it turns out one or both of them even called Ceramics Canada, who in turn (I think) referred them to Fairview Studios. Personally, I would have bought a mug and called it a day.
Anyway, I guess the point to all this verbage is this. Why would you torture yourself and your mate with learning how to throw pottery, to commemorate what was supposed to have been the “happiest day of your life”? Don’t get me wrong, I love throwing on the wheel. It is quite soothing and meditative. However, the soothing and the meditative doesn’t come the first time you sit down to a lump of clay on the wheel. I could see the frustration building with the husband. He was good natured about it all, but he just wasn’t getting it. The wife on the other hand had done this before (albeit a long time ago), and so already had a bit of a feel for it. They did manage to get 3 or 4 small pots off the wheel (with some help from me), and I offered to finish them up and let them know when they were ready. We usually don’t do that for a one off type class, it is just a make it and trash it kind of class to get the feel of what wheel throwing is like without committing to a full 4 weeks of classes. When they left, they were still smiling, so I guess this didn’t break up the marriage (would have made for a more interesting story if there had been a potential divorce), so I guess all’s well that ends well.
Tonight I teach my regular class, and hopefully I will come up with something more inspiring than a bowl to throw.
I will be waxing (not poetically or lyrically) feet tonight, when not instructing, as my tea set is waiting for glazing and the clients are getting anxious. I too am anxious, I may have thrown the mugs “too well”. They are very light and thin walled, so I hope the glaze sticks. Sometimes I have crawling issues with things that are too thin as the glaze does not dry properly and can sometimes start to slide/fold over on itself down the pot. It’s that darn Bmix, it is so good, you can throw things super thin and before you know it you have thrown it tooooo thin.