Two tea pots by Carlos
A cute teapot, reddish in color.

If you asked me in high school if I would ever get into ceramics, I would tell you no. I wasn't good with my hands, which meant I was awful at building things. I had always thought ceramics looked cool, just not when I made something. Fast forward to present day, and I would consider myself an "amateur potter"-- emphasis on the amateur part. After leaving my Global Sounds class about three weeks ago, I passed by the ceramics studio and started to look inside at the pieces on display. After noticing my staring, Sarah (a Ceramics Instructor) came outside and asked me if I wanted to come in. After a quick explanation of how the studio works, I decide to sign up for the term. In total, it cost me $20 to have access to the studio for all of the winter term, plus six pounds of clay. That seemed like a great deal to me. Sarah sat down with me and began to explain the basics of ceramics. We first made a pinch pot which was pretty cool to make. I decided to get fancy and added lines to mine. It was my first piece ever, and I was pretty proud of myself even though it looked half as good as Sarah's.


My very first piece. It's not great, but decent. Ignore the crooked lines, at the time I thought it looked cool.

After that, I said I wanted to make a teapot. "Whoa, slow down," might be your reaction. But instead, Sarah said okay, let's see how we can do this. To make a long process short: I built it by hand using a bowl as a mold and combined two halves, added a coil to seal the meeting point, and smoothed out the edges.


My first tea pot.

After I finished building the teapots I left them to dry for a few days. Turns out that ceramics is a fairly long process; the teapots had to be fired, and then I glazed them and then fired again. I decided to make my mom one as well as a present. The second time was much easier, and I got a bit creative building it. 

I was stoked when I saw the finished product because it was the second piece I had ever made, and who doesn't love tea pots? And it's going to work! Ever since I've been going to the studio when I have some free time (it's rare but yes you do have a bit of free time as a student). The ceramics studio has become a place where I get to destress and calm myself down from whatever might be going on in my everyday life. Perhaps the cliche "college is the time and place to try something new" is true. And if you're a master potter, then that's great too! The studio has all of the resources you'll need to continue your passion.