a pottery play date

I mentioned a couple weeks back that I am busy working on a series of pottery posts and I am excited to begin sharing them! In weeks and months ahead I have some fun pottery tutorials and clay inspiration coming your way.

For those of you new to my blog (or my background), my parents are potters and I've spent my entire life around clay.  I was introduced to clay long before painting and spent a great deal of time dabbling in pottery as a kid. Growing up my mom and dad ran a successful pottery business from their home studio- I spent my childhood watching my dad throw pots on the wheel and my mom run a wholesale tile business. My brother and I spent weekends and summers at craft shows and art galleries so it's really no surprise I grew up to be an artist!

While my dad taught me how to throw on the wheel, it never really stuck, I always preferred sculpting and hand building and then I fell in love with painting and it was all over for me! But now that Lucy is getting older we've wanted to get her playing on the wheel or at least witness the process. Recently we planned a family play date where we all took turns, with my dad's help, playing on the wheel. Throwing on the wheel is hard and it take tons of time and patience to actually make something but the process is exhilarating! Needless to say we had a BLAST! It took a while for Lucy to warm up to it all (ironic that the kid who loves dirt, mud, sand and paint wasn't excited about getting clay on her hands) but with a little encouragement she finally jumped right in. Here is a peek into our creative session:

                                               pottery from Alisa Burke on Vimeo.

Normally I don't laugh at my crying child but the fact that she was so upset by the clay on her hands was just hilarious- especially because she spent the previous day painting with her hands. 

Much better :)