This week was spent getting organized. I spent most of my time working on this blog by adding pictures and making it look colorful, which was surprisingly very hard for me. I’m not always very good at computers and understanding how to design things digitally, so it was a learning process. When I wasn’t working on the blog, I did a lot of throwing just for fun. Kind of like a “free write,” where you sit down and write whatever comes into your mind, I sat at the wheel and threw. I thought this would be a good idea for week one, because I haven’t thrown since last school year, so I needed to freshen up on my skills and let myself be creative. It’s oddly freeing when you can just take a ball of clay and just start working with it. I had no plan or idea of what I would make, I just let myself make whatever I wanted at that moment. I could center the clay, open it, and pull the walls up. Once I had created a cylinder shape, I would refine the form. Sometimes I made it wider, and sometimes I made it more narrow. Sometimes I left the walls going straight up and down, and sometimes I made them wavy, it depended on what I felt like doing at the time. The end product was always a surprise to me.

One of the most important things for me when I throw is the music I listen to. I can’t listen to music when I am doing academic work like reading or math because I always end up tapping my foot to the beat and it distracts me but when I am doing pottery, I don’t have to think in that type of way. I have to think about what I am doing with the clay but oftentimes, music can help me know what to do next. I think it inspires me. This week, I have been working my way through The Beatles albums. I haven’t gotten very far but my goal is to listen to all their songs in order, beginning to end. It’s seven albums, I think. I am a firm believer of listening to albums in order and not on shuffle because I enjoy listening to the story.