Beware of puddles!

Well while throwing yesterday, I made the dreaded mistake of leaving a puddle on the bottom of my pot, and guess what? My vase CRACKED!!!!!!! RATS!

It's ok because the clay can be reused, so I threw it back into my bag of rejects. Something else i learned yesterday was a more robust way of collaring. It appears that I'm pretty good at making bowl forms, but I'm terrible at making things with a tummy/belly. Tom, my instructor, who is a retired engineer, broke it all down! Now I have a new way of collaring, which uses three points of contact from each hand, so I don't end up pulling the neck off the piece by jerking up too fast. Also, I noticed that when collaring, you make sure you keep your collar on the pot in one spot for a long time, and you push in, then slowly push up. No wonder I got fluted edges all the time!

Here's a picture from my notebook, illustrating the collaring.