I’ve got this sink, you can see it in this shot from before I actually owned my condo – it’s a big round porcelain bowl and I thought ‘a thrown piece would be awesome there’. Ambitious, and totally unfeasible in the first round, but worth a try.

I have never ever thrown more that 7lbs in one go. Now, you might think 7lbs isn’t much, but between wedging and centring it’s quote a handful (see what I did there?). For this sink I decided on a whopping 13.5 lbs of clay.

I centred and threw using the same techniques I use for 7lbs. So, as you might imagine, the piece didn’t do too well. The walls flare too much and were losing structural integrity in a big way. It was also lopsided.  I was very proud that I managed to get even this far though, centred perfectly to start and finishing at an impressive 16″ diameter,  and I’ll be trying again.

I could hear my teacher’s voice in my head telling me everything I was doing wrong, but I honestly needed to just do this as a horrible, necessary exercise. I’ll be taking time off clay to focus on glass for the summer and be back in the studio this autumn.

There’s always an important lesson to be learned in pushing your limits, and I certainly did here!