The Art of Clay: Day 1

 
It was a fun and busy first day in The Art of Clay! After a planning and brainstorming session on campus, we were off for our first gallery visit. Following a fascinating trip to Contoocook, we headed back up 93 for an afternoon working in the studio at the Community Clay Center in Plymouth. Emily '20 and Maggie '17 had these reflections to share on their experiences from day one.

Today, our group began our project talking about our plans for the upcoming week, full of gallery visits and studio time where we will get to experience clay with our own hands. Then we departed for Contoocook, where we visited Boyan Moskov, a Bulgarian artist who told us his inspirations and answered several of our questions that we had. For example, he talked about how he's not always satisfied with a lot of his pieces, and said at one point he disliked 90% of his fired work! Moskov let us see his own little gallery in the loft of his studio where we saw much more variety than we had expected from what we saw on his website. After that enlightening visit, we headed north again and stopped for lunch in Plymouth. Finally, we went to the Community Clay Center, and everyone was excited to learn how to throw pottery on the wheel. Michelle explained the basics of the process, and we all watched in awe as she demonstrated very quickly and easily how a bowl was formed by being centered on a spinning wheel. Then, for an exhilarating, educational, fun-filled 3 hours, we dirtied our hands, and turned lumps of dry clay into beautiful, round bowls. Now, we all can’t wait to see what knowledge tomorrow will bring! -Emily '20

Going into the pottery studio today, I wasn't expecting it to be as hard as it was. Seeing the scale at which many ceramicists work, I assumed that throwing a small pot would be easy. I quickly found that it was much more difficult than it seemed, and I have a renewed appreciation for potters in general. I'm very excited to visit more galleries tomorrow and to get back to work in the pottery studio. -Maggie '17

Visiting the studio of artist Boyan Moskov

Work from the studio of Boyan Moskov.

Getting to know the wheel at the Community Clay Center in Plymouth.

Eva, Adi, Michael, and Mr. Benjamin try their hand on the wheel.

Evelyn and Candice get some pointers on the wheel.

 

Work from day one at the Community Clay Center