it's back - winter, that is

I knew it couldn't last - that lovely out-of-season spring weather. Oh well, it was delightful for a couple of days. Frost on the windshields this morning - brrrr. At least my car heater is working, I hope.

I knew there was something I wanted to blog about and had forgotten. This is about the ceramics class for seniors that I teach every Monday afternoon. This week was the start of a new session and I was expecting three returning students and one new person. The regulars all showed up, but instead of one new person, there were four!! And, what wonderful students these ladies are. They are full of enthusiasm and just bubbling over with how much they enjoy playing with clay. I believe one of them has prior experience, but not recently. I started them off with pinch pots, which are very simple bowls made from a ball of clay. This is a good way to get the feel of working with clay. Then I showed them what equipment and glazes we have for them to use, talked about the process and let them look at some books and catalogs for ideas of what they might want to make next week. They just lapped up all the information and said they were looking forward to next week. What fun it was to work with them!

My regular students are wonderful women, very talented and I really enjoy being with them. They are friends, more than students, as they don't need much assistance from me. They have been in class long enough to know what they want to do and to work independently. Sometimes, I bring in something different and offer a tutorial, but mostly I'm just there to answer questions. Having four new students means that I will actually be teaching every week. This will be a challenge to me, as I've gotten a bit lazy, but also it will be fun.