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// Chapter 111- Pottery Throw Down 
// Story: Reformed Unicorn Group Podcast 
// by Quoterific 
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“Welcome back to another arts and crafts tutorial with me, Sunset Shimmer,” The yellow unicorn welcomed their listeners her art show part of the R.U.G., “We are going to try something different to the usual painting that I usually do and try our hooves at ceramic and clay works. I’ll be showing my fellow co-hosts how to make the perfect pottery for beginners.” The turned to the others, who sat behind a turntable each with a seven-hundred gram slab of clay to work with in the middle.
 
“This is going to be an interesting experience, and a messy one as well,” Tempest looked at her piece of clay waiting to become something beautiful.
 
“Definitely will be different than the usual paintworks,” Starlight said, getting her hooves wet with a water tub next to her, “It’s like what Rarity says about fashion, turning simple pieces of fabrics into a work of art. Hopefully what we will do today will be just that.”
 
“Trixie is definitely liking the sound of that,” Trixie spoke in the usual third person, “Teach away, mini Twilight!” Sunset resisted the urge to facehoof at Trixie’s remark, though Starlight rolled her eyes, remembering being called ‘mini Twilight’ when trying to teach Trixie how to do teleportation spells.
 
“Right, everypony, place your hoof on the pedal to start spinning the table,” Sunset instructed, everypony doing as they were told, “Keep making sure that your hooves are wet throughout the process. There are two rules, and they are to keep the clay wet and keep it spinning.” The others nodded as they concentrated on their piece of clay in silence. Sunset turned to her piece of clay as she watched the others carefully with a teaching eye.
 
“Push down on the edges now and that will form a seal and then we can start with centring. Centring is two steps, coning up and coning down.” With hooves pressed firmly on their clay, the others lifted up their heads to watch Sunset work.
 
“I’m going to squeeze my hooves together, and so the clay has no place to go except the top of my hooves, hence coning up,” Sunset explained whilst she worked, applying pressure so the clay rose up, “To cone down, you just need to wet the clay again and push down and forward whilst keeping the whole table spinning.” She put her hooves together at a right angle and applied a slight pressure to let the clay fall into a cone downwards. The others looked at her work with fascination and awe.
 
“Now you give it a go, it helps with the consistency and final formation of the ceramic work,” Sunset looked towards the others. They nodded as they applied the correct around of pressure and watched their clay rise up. Shifting position and pressing down slightly, the cone shrank in size whilst still in the centre. Sunset looked impress whilst her co-hosts worked. 
 
“Keep doing that until it’s perfectly in the centre,” Sunset explained.
 
“How will you know that it’s in the centre?” Starlight asked.
 
“It won’t wiggle away from your hooves and be straight when you cone back up again,” Sunset answered simply. The others keep repeating the actions until they were certain that their piece of clay was perfectly in the centre.
 
“Now we can start forming our hole in the middle. With the edge of your hoof and slightly angled, push down and moving it away from the centre to open it up, like this.” Using her other hoof to steady herself, she moved pushed a hole in the middle, the clay giving way to take the shape of a shallow bowl. The others followed Sunset’s actions closely.
 
“To make the wall, you just need to push the edge slight and move up with the clay, ” Sunset continued, pinching the edge with both hooves, she allowed the clay to move upwards, “This action is call pulling a wall. Then you slowly release the pressure and let to.” She then formed a small vase with the pulling, the other unicorn watching with concentration and fascination. Sunset took to the centre and pulled outwards, the vase starting to take shape with a more rounded form.
 
“This is where you can make any corrections, smooth it out and clear any dents or wrong curves,” Sunset hummed a happy tune whilst she worked, “It sure is a therapeutic form of art and in the end you create something beautiful.” Silenced reigned over the group for the last few minutes as they worked on their piece some more. 
 
“Now that it has formed the correct shape, we are going to paint it. Slowly release the pedal so you don’t misshapen the final work.” They released the pedal slowly together and admired their final work.
 
“We are going to use a special paint mix that doesn’t get damaged when the clay is heated. Paint whatever pattern you feel like and we will send them over to the pottery store in Ponyville where Fluttershy goes to get her tea sets and get them fired up,” Sunset instructed.
 
Starlight chose a clear white with red, yellow and blue polka-dots, giving the final piece a abstract pop-art look. She smiled as she stood back to admire her work. Sunset chose a gradient of shaded reds and pinks, gentle like a sunset over the horizon. She even added a few whisps of clouds and birds flying in the distance. Tempest chose a stripes of greens and yellows to make her pottery look bright eye-catching. Trixie chose shades of purple and blue to make her vase have a shaded effect that will be dazzling when the clay is heated up and protected. 
 
“As I said, these will be fired up where Fluttershy goes to get her tea set, and that is all for the pottery throw tutorial for today,” Sunset concluded, “I hoped you enjoyed learning something new today about the art of pottery making.” 
 
“Thank you for another arts demonstration,” Tempest thanked, “And we hope you enjoyed listening whilst we worked and inspired you to try pottery throwing as well. That is all on the R.U.G. today, and we will see you all again very soon!"