Coiled Vases and Wheel Throwing

Today was an exhausting day. To start, I had to be at school by 7:45am in order to go to the police headquarters. Now, before you freak out, no one is in trouble. When you live in Italy, you have to get a permit of stay (and pay a heavy fee to the police). So, today a group of us were completing the process. I was really freaked out going there because SACI had told us that it is a very long process. However, it wasn't that bad. The computers at the headquarters were down for an hour so we just sat around zombie-like (I'm guessing not many people had coffee) until the system was up and running. Once it was, all they did was take our four photos that we had brought and then they proceeded to fingerprint us. Luckily, I went fourth (out of the 30+ people from SACI who were assigned this registration date) so by the time I was done and home it was only 9:30am so I was able to go back to sleep before my 1:15pm class).

Once I woke up from a much needed nap, it was time to go to ceramics. Today we threw more on the wheel. I have a love-hate relationship with wheel throwing because it is so incredibly difficult and frustrating to get the clay centered (which you have to do before you can even start making anything) but on the other hand, it's pretty cool once you make something. We're still in the bowl making stage, since that's what you learn first. Once they dry, we trim them (and shave off the excess clay at the bottom, where we had to cut it off the throwing wheel). These were my two bowls today.. I like the one on the left more! The one on the right almost reminds me of a small dog bowl.

We also continued to work on our coiled vases. This is mine so far. I have to smooth out the bumps from the coils along the side and make the neck even more narrow and taller. Then it will be time for decoration. Luckily, it's almost done and I am right on track with the rest of the class.

After ceramics, my day wasn't over yet. I had a quick dinner break and then had to go to Museology. By that time, I was very sleepy (even though I had taken a nap) so I'm glad we had a short lecture today (we had a very long discussion on the reading).

It's only 8pm here but I'm exhausted and my Museology class is visiting the Uffizi tomorrow (finally!) so I want to be awake for that so...

Ciao for now!