How Green Becomes Wood

Alec had finally managed to sink his fist into the clay, and now he wasn't positive he could get it back out. He played it cool when Claire came over, pretending like he was just resting there. "Right back at you! I didn't know you worked here. Love your hair, by the way."

"Sup," Xander greeted her, still slowly, slowly working his clay.
 
"I think I've got it," Xander said. "Just mash until all the bubbles are out and the clay works with you, right? I think I'm almost there."

Alec nodded. "Although, I am wondering if there's like a specific technique that makes it work better?"
 
"It's sort of like kneading dough," Claire said, "It helps to get leverage, so if you stand up and kind of get over it---I can show you, if you'd like. I use the heels of my hand to work it rather than, like, my fist, too."
 
"This table is a little high for me, but it's not too bad. You're going to want to brace one leg against the table like this, and," She threw Alec's ball of clay down on the table a few times like it owed her money, "Just really toss it so it gets into a shape like this, just because it's more workable. And if the table is dry, be sure to mist it because otherwise the clay'll stick. I typically wedge the clay like this, in a sort of spiral," She demonstrated, slowing down so they could see what she was doing, "but that's a bit trickier, so what you might want to do," again, she reshaped it into a vaguely cuboid shape, "Is what's called the ram's head, so you'll push it forward with the heels of your hand like this, then with your fingers pull it back in. It'll form this great spiral, but if you forget to push, it'll just flatten itself back out."
 
Alec watched the clay at first, but ended up watching Claire work. It was astounding. She was so powerful! And strong, and really cool. He blinked and forced his attention back to the clay. "Right! Let me try."

Xander had already scooped his clay up and misted the whole table. He slammed the clay down solidly with an almighty THUD.

Alec jumped and stared at him. "I think the clay is dead."

Xander nodded in satisfaction. "I thought I saw it twitching."

Alec shook his head and started copying what Claire was doing. She made it look effortless. He did not, but it was moving a lot easier than his first attempts.
 
"Awesome. Thanks, Claire!" Alec grinned. He went to work battling his clay chunk, and now that he had Claire's advice to refer to, he did a much better job, and it came much more easily. There was something almost therapeutic about working the clay like this. He wondered if he should take up baking bread.

Xander just enjoyed pummeling it. That was a lot of fun. He was almost sad when it was time to move on to the next step.
 
"It's no problem, I'm more than happy to help!" She said cheerfully, moving on to check on others.

The next step was actually making something from the clay, and since it wasn't a wheel throwing class, the instructor gave ideas on what sort of things could be made and she and Claire talked through how to do popular ones.
 
Alec and Xander both chose to do a vase, though Alec decided partway through to change his to a pitcher. Hopefully, even if it didn't make a good pitcher, it would still hold water enough to make a vase. The pair focused on their work, sometimes chatting with each other and goofing off lightly. They were careful not to disrupt anyone else, but they were having fun with the clay and each other. They traded ideas, "sabotaged" each other's works by making tiny marks, and overall enjoyed themselves.
 
Claire mostly just let them be, because she has everyone else in the class to also help. Eventually, though, she moseyed back over, hands in the pockets of her apron, and asked, "What did you both decide to make?"
 
"I've made a vase," Xander said. He frowned at it. "It looks like a droopy, upside-down top hat, but I think it'll hold water."

"I've made a pitcher that can potentially also be used as a vase," Alec told her. It did look like a pitcher, though the handle drooped a bit. "I'm trying to decide how to decorate it. I want to give it to my uncle as a gift, I think, and he owns a flower shop. I thought it'd make a great decoration, but it seems weird to put flowers on a flower vase."
 
"Oh, awesome!" Claire said, resting her arms on the table and leaning in to get a better look, "Can I check their thickness? I'd hate for them to explode after all your hard work. And you could always do a nice geometric pattern."
 
"Geometric could be nice," Alec agreed musingly. He almost reached for his phone to look up some inspiration images and then remembered his hands were covered in clay. He looked around, instead, to see what was around him.

Xander gave a wave of permission to Claire. "Be my guess. Explosions sound cool only when that's what you wanted to happen."
 
"The problem with an explosion in the kiln is they'll take out everyone else's piece too, and we hate having to make those phone calls," Claire grinned, picking up Xander's carefully, "Do you mind if I thin it out or do you want me to just tell you how to?"
 
"Sure!" Claire said, taking a few moments to look over it, "So what you can do is either pinch and pull this upwards to thin out the walls, or you can take a tool like..." she reached over and grabbed one, "This one, and if you can get your hand inside the opening, just scrape the clay right up. That'll thin it out no problem. If your base is too thick..." She put her hand inside and touched the bottom, feeling it with both hands, and after deciding it was okay, she picked up Alec's, "Yeah, so, with this one, you may want to just cut some of the clay off with the wire tool to thin it out some."
 
Xander followed her instructions, muttering quietly at the clay to do what he wanted it to. It seemed to hear him and obeyed.

"Like, right here and here?" Alec asked, pointing out the areas.
 
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