Moving on - or indeed standing still.

By the time it came to September 2015, and the start of both my second Adult Ed course, and Richard Phethean's evening workshops, I had managed to burn out the motor of my electric wheel, after many hours of producing what I considered to be mediocre, medium and small sized teabowls and vessels. I had subsequently attempted to build an alternative electric wheel, using parts from the original and a motor from a secondhand treadmill running machine, from a local man advertising it on Gumtree. Judging by the size of the guy, it seemed amazing that the running machine was in such good condition, and I can only assume that it had been one of those purchases that seemed a good idea at the time, until he had realised he would actually need to break a sweat if he was to reduce some of his considerable bulk. Anyway, having ripped the guts out of it, I was able to retrieve the motor and control pcb, and was very pleased with the end result. That is, until I started to use it, when I realised that the controls were very slow to respond and the wheel generally too fast, good for initial centring, but making it difficult to make any delicate finishing touches to almost completed pots. It also had a slight, but noticeable wobble! It had required quite a lot of work to get the wheel to the stage where I could sit in front of it, and begin to throw, so it was frustratingly disappointing to realise that this was not going to provide the answer going forward (an entirely unnecessary corporate phrase seemingly thrown into business conversations willy-nilly and needed no more at the end of this sentence than in many of those used in discussions between shiny-suited, self-important men, other than to prove a point about how pointless it is).

However, I had reached a stage where I needed to be making pottery, there was no turning back, but unlike many of the middle aged, mainly women (I imagine), who had been inspired by the recent BBC airing of 'The Great British Throw Down', (or 'Throw Up', as it was known in our house), I couldn't either afford or indeed justify paying up to a grand for a brand new Shimpo wheel (apparently the must have item in any new ceramics graduate's studio - for those lucky enough to find and be able to fund such a course or live comfortably with the student debt towering over them). I needed another means of making pottery, and you might imagine that my luck with wheels so far may have pointed me in a different direction by this stage, but no, I continued to fixate on throwing, so I was over the moon when I noticed a Gumtree advert offering an old electric wheel, free to a good home, and even more miraculously, located in the same village as us. On the 'gift horse' and 'mouth' basis, I gratefully accepted this offer, but unfortunately, following the hassle of lugging this heftie monstrosity of a wheel into my van for the half mile trip home, I was to discover just why it had been so freely given away. Although in theory fully working, it was in far from good condition, and my initial thoughts that I would easily be able to strip it down and recondition it, gave way to the rather more negative realisation that I would never be able to make much use of it. So, for several frustrating weeks, I relied on the use of wheels at both course venues to continue to develop my skills, whilst unable to practice between times.

Whilst less formal than the qualification based course offered by my local Adult Ed. service, Richard Phethean's evening workshops offered an excellent opportunity to reinforce the basics of throwing, whilst exploring the use of coloured decorating slips, that I hadn't previously used. Whilst the drive down to Penzance/Helston (a round trip just shy of 100 miles), just as what classes as a rush hour in Cornwall was getting going, was at times a bit of a pain, it was well worth it, and I can recommend Richard's classes to anyone, and would welcome the opportunity to attend again at some stage in the future. Richard is a very affable and amusing tutor, with many a tale to tell, whose knowledge of ceramics seems second to none (as well as being the current chair of the CPA, he is an authority on throwing and author of 'Throwing', part of the New Ceramics series, published by A & C Black). He teaches in a very casual but informed manner, and everyone seemed to both enjoy the sessions and gain enormously from his instruction. Though the series of ten classes that I signed up for were over far too soon, I feel I finally began to produce some more mature pieces that took me to a new (and thankfully higher) level, despite being clearly influenced by Richard's direction.