Dear Beginning Student,
I know you may be feeling a little out of practice right now, perhaps you had a little time away from the wheel and you feel like you’ve forgotten everything. Maybe you look over at old mate’s wheel and you see they have made a lovely bowl, and you look at your own misshapen lump of uncentered clay wobble around the wheel and feel like giving up. You might feel like you’ll never get there; it’s too hard. I hear you. It is hard. Starting at the beginning when everyone else seems to be able to do it so easily! It’s a bit shit. But you can learn. No one does this “naturally”. There is no natural talent here. It’s a skill. I learned it, and so can you.
Here is a little pot I made in my first few months of learning. It’s so tiny - but gosh it’s cute! I haven’t kept much from back then - it was 8 years ago, after all! But this little lady is a sweet reminder that I also started at the beginning.
I remember back then, I would lose so much clay in the centering process that I thought I’d never get a pot out of it. But look! A teeny tiny pot! I did it! I showed you, clay!
Yes, some days you got it, and some days you don’t got it. It just means you got more practicing to do - hooray! So in the words of the great Ray Laurens “You show that clay who’s boss!”.
I am teaching at @bisque.studios
@northcotepotterysupplies (where I made this lil pot!).
