Pottery Classes
E-mail or call me for details
(228) 363 - 2622
Baccaratt@aol.com

Why On Earth Do They Call It Throwing?

I 2001 I suffered the third cerebral stroke I lost the movement in my right side of my body was a unique experience and feeling was like someone dissect my body and separated my right side with my left My wife got some pottery classes before and decided to give me a certificate for 10 pottery classes as a massage therapist she thought will be a good therapy and indeed was not only good for my right side but for my brain. When I started learning I wondered why on earth wheel work was called throwing. Since I had the skills in etymology to answer these questions myself, I eventually got around to doing just that.

 One of my initial discoveries was of great personal interest. I finally explored a larger number of potter's words, some patterns began to emerge. Within the flux of language some areas change rapidly and some resist change. Much of the specialized vocabulary of pottery has resisted change for the simple reason that the activities and objects described have changed so little over the centuries.

 Clay appears in Old English as claeg and means exactly the same thing it does today. To find the root for clay, we have to go back to the Indo-European root *glei- meaning to glue, paste, stick together.

To throw. Almost as a international language every potter I met since 2001 call  their work at the potters wheel as turning. They understand only the modern meaning of to throw and do not use it to describe their work. the word throw has retained its original meaning in the language of pottery but has developed a completely different meaning in everyday usage. Those who say they throw pots are using the historically correct term. Those who say they turn pots are using more current language. Both are saying the same thing.

The paint used in pottery normally known as Glaze and glass come from the same root - the Old English root glaer, meaning amber. Amber, as everyone knows, is a "pale yellow, sometimes reddish or brownish, fossil resin of vegetable origin, translucent, brittle." (The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, 1967).

Kiln derives used today for pottery came from the Latin word culina, or kitchen or cookstove. the device and the domestic concept of  Culina was introduced to England by the Romans in the first and second centuries A.D.,  Its first written appearance as a regular part of structures was in 1638.

 

          

         Once the clay was all incorporated,                      Trowing and Centering the clay to start a new piece A well centered chunk                            wedged and ready to go…                                          clay make the process easier and avoid to ha uneven walls.
      I cut up the clay into smaller chunks

     and wedged them into balls for throwing.                          

                                     

  

More Information

Classes will be divided in Wheel Thrown and hand built. In order to work directly with each individual needs, I personally will prefer to have different techniques in different days, however classes could be arranged to applicants schedules.

Check soon for prices, more info and hours!