Six weeks later, I can finally write this review…read more
Woohoo! For those not aware, my latest endeavor was signing up for a six-week pottery course with one of my best friends who also happens to be my work husband. What motivated this endeavor? I am a bored and crazy soul. That, and admittedly, this was on my bucket list for years. You see, my mother used to do ceramics and she would never stop talking about how I needed to try it as well.
Turns out that while my mother had talent for pottery, I am abysmal at it. The only real competition I have is my dear friend. We cannot seem to decide whose pottery is worse.
Semantics aside, the Ceramic League of Miami can be located in the village of Pinecrest. It essentially is an open-spaced garage full of pottery wheels, bookshelves, and clay galore. They have an area for parking, and on the off chance it's packed, there's plenty of businesses around where you can park. Everything in this area is pretty relaxed.
Classes can either be daytime or nighttime Monday through Saturday. We signed up for the 2:30 PM Saturday class for the pottery wheel and soda kiln with James. The signing up process was relatively simple. We did everything online.
When we began the class, we were given the option of purchasing a tool set. You needed to bring exact change for this. $14 to be specific. If you didn't get this for whatever reason (usually the school running out of them), you could share with the instructor and/or other students. This is what ended up happening to me.
This six-week pottery course cost $155 and it included two and a half hours of instruction every Saturday, as well as what I refer to as that horribly heavy 20+ lb of clay bag. The class is over and I have leftover clay. What the heck am I supposed to do with it? I have clay in places I never thought I would. Cough; I am referencing my box of art supplies in my car. Yes, I can effectively now say I've become an artist.
If you become a member of this non-profit organization, the class will cost you $145 instead. Overall, I thought the prices fair for what we did. We received a lot of personal instruction and got to get our hands down and dirty. Unfortunately the movie Ghost sets up unrealistic expectations when it comes to clay. Noting that, if you go in with an open mind, this is a blast; a frustrating blast but a blast nevertheless.
I found James to be an efficient and kind instructor. I just wish there had been more organization on his part. We never really got to mark our pieces properly, but oh well. I would probably do this again in the future. For now though, this girl is off to her next venture: aerial yoga!
