Jar, flowers and thoughts

I made this small jar at school one day during a class demo. There is always a dilemma of what I should do with the pots that I make as demonstrations for my students. There are times if they are working on a shape that I hand it to the student to use as a study piece. They can hang on to it as long as they need to and after that it is tossed back in the slop bucket to be added to the next mix of our class clay.
I make it very clear that the work not be kept, bisqued or glazed unless it is something I want to keep. If I have time I will sometimes finish a piece that I started, but this does not happen very often. After all, I am there to teach not make pots.
The quickest way to break down a pot is to cut it in half as soon as the demo is done. I do this with cylinders and then ask the beginnings to do the same. Make it and toss it, over and over and over.
What we do is skill based, memory skills, teaching your hands to make what you see in your brain.
This takes time.
There are many early pots that can come back to haunt you later.
My other advice to the students is don't let it go too fast to the fire plie, keep it a week or more and really look at it each week. Can you make it better? Learning to let go of something you made can be hard, but you need to remove your feelings, emotional as we all are, from the equation and develope a good eye for what makes a good pot.
If you want to be better you must be critical of your own work.

Mark was up early to light Ms. B, it is a good day to fire after another wet, stormy week. It is nice and cool this morning and I have thrown open a door to let some cool air in the house. We all have A/C these days but there is nothing better than the air that comes after a rain.
Happy day,
M