My first presentable pottery work: The turtle




I don't know which kind, but as you can see, it's a turtle. I made it last summer at my pottery class.
We first made the shell...on the wheel, it's a manually operated wheel following simplest of the simple mechanisms...the wheel is put on a concrete base so that the wheel is slightly elevated from the ground with it's center as the supporting point...the wheel has a hole where a wooden stick is stuck and used to rotate it by rotating the wheel. Then idiot kids like me throw the mud onto the wheel and stick in their hands, sometimes the potter tries to help the kids by sticking in his hands too and making a base and basic of a pot but adamant kids like me say I'll do everything and stick their hands in a little further, a little stronger...poof...the mud collapses into crap.. is thrown away as usual. So on and so forth after kilos and more kilos of soft and rich clay strewn about on sir potter, the interested viewers and the new dresses of is-posh students in aprons, we finally learn to make something nameable. As in, some end up looking like pillars some like flowers, but most commonly they end up looking like chippas beggars will most certainly refuse.
After such valorous repeated attempts there comes a time when one spark of genius and skill and effort all coincide...then comes a beauty such as the base of this turtle.
Then we take the base sit down with some water...most of us forget the vessels for it so we end up sharing, pulling and spilling the delicious molten chocolate looking mud, use it to shape the mud into something that looks like a head...some geniuses make rasgullas or gulab jamuns(as they imagine their mums making) and throw it on the poor base...and poof again..the mud collapses to everyone's delight(you see, we're competitive students) then as we go on making it...every five minutes we hear someone hissing and cursing the mud, after which they become jobless and end up plaguing the few ones that by a chance of luck seem to succed...through all this, silent (you know it's a lie already) but violent me goes on skilfully using her creativity and skill to make a rasgulla, press my thumbs on both sides...make two more little mustard seeds and stick them in their repective places called eyes and then slowly, carefully add a piece of mud to the head making it look like a neck and then more slowly, carefully and skillfully than ever, i attach it to the shell to the envy of everyone.
Hahha, relishing in my success i make its legs and stick them in, then i choose the design on the shell...well, i have one in my mind now( inspired from my cousin Sahiti's most repeated mehendi design in our ninth standard), but i dont have a pulla(thin stick made of coconut)..?? what to do...then i saw hope glimmer...i saw a fifth class kid with the required pulla trying to design his poor gonna die in a few minutes turtle's head..and as soon as it did, snatched it away and did the design. . And some how i finished that and the lines on it's legs...and TADAI!!! My very own pretty pretty pet turtle's ready...the plus point is that this pet saves time (Its been lying nameless behind our T.V for a year completely covered in cobwebs and still alive),money, food, space and the cleaning procedure...and it's such a pity you can't have it. It's my turtle, the work of a genius for you all to envy. And because people don't seem to notice it as much as they should. I wrote this whole entire thing..as a morale boost it's your duty to leave a compliment in the comments space...those who know me(since they seem to be dominant among my blog viewers)..kangaru padipoyi negative comments cheyseykandi..i'll make you pay for every word.