A New Hobby

Last October I decided to take a pottery class at Japanese run Overland Club.  They offer open-ended lessons where the student decides what they want to work on, and the sensei helps only as much or as little as needed.  After completing my first teapot, I was in love:

Since then, I've been going every week and making new pieces.  All of them, thus far, have been tea related. 

Here's a side-handle, Japanese-style kyusu. I made this with red clay. I like the natural look of the clay and left a bit unglazed to show it off:

This one is an experimental piece of my own design, and it took three tries to come out, as the other two cracked when drying or after first firing.  It's inspired by the Klein bottle and has only one opening.  It's not perfect yet, and I may revisit this design to make a few changes:

A matcha bowl, or chawan. The outside has a rough texture because I incorporated sand.  The inside is smooth and the glaze gives off a fantastic optical illusion of the bowl being refilled.  Also, I made the bamboo scoop, chashaku, you see in the background, but that's another story:

I have another pot in the kiln and a new piece I just started today.  It's great to be inspired creatively again!  All thanks to my muse, the little green leaf.