Crackpot Thursday

I really enjoy working with clay. I also really enjoy drag queens. So I accepted my friend Mary's invitation to join her and some friends for a pottery class at a studio called Mud, Sweat, and Tears taught by Sybil Bruncheon without hesitation. The studio is in Hell's Kitchen, and I'd actually noticed it before but had never taken much notice of it. I arrived with a purse full of beer--Crackpot Thursday is B.Y.O.B--and was joined shortly thereafter by Mary's group of five, some of whom I knew. A few others trickled in for the class but the whole group stayed small - only eight.

Sybil

After we'd settled in around the work table, Sybil hit the scene. She wore unbelievably long false eyelashes, blue eyeshadow, and precise triangles of blush. She referred to herself as "Mummy" and called us all darlings. I was the only one who had ever worked with ceramics before, so she demonstrated a series of hand building techniques (no wheels for us, which was fine by me) that was part instruction and part comedy routine. We giggled our way through the 30-minute performance and sipped wine, then were given slabs of clay and told to get to work.

There were a number of molds available to use, making it easy to shape bowls and platters with perfect lines. We were encouraged to roll doilies or stamps onto the clay for texture, and employees of the studio bustled around giving us suggestions. I made a secret project with which I hope to surprise Ed (so I won't give it away here) and a coffee mug that turned out to look more like a tankard. I was the only one who managed to turn out two projects. We had 2 1/2 hours to work with, but most everyone was new to the techniques and was also more easily distracted by the food (pizza and snacks) and drinking than I; I was so absorbed in my work that I hadn't finished my first glass of wine by the time we adjourned. We left our pieces to dry. Mud, Sweat, and Tears will fire them for us and, for an additional $5 per piece, will even glaze them for us in the color of our choice and fire them again. We were given the option of coming back to glaze them ourselves, but I decided to shell out the $5. I definitely want to go back, but I'm not sure when that will happen and it would be best if I could just pick up my stuff and go.

Sybil hugged us goodbye at the end of the evening and gave us fliers for Wild West Bingo, a Monday night event she hosts in the West Village. Mary and I already have plans to pick up our pieces on a Monday and head straight to the Village for more quality time with Mummy.