If you've recently started your wheel-throwing journey, you might remember my earlier post: Letter to a Beginner Pottery Student—a love note to those brave enough to sit at the wheel for the first time. This post is a follow-up for all beginner ceramic students who’ve now tasted that bittersweet moment of seeing a piece not survive the process. Because once you’ve pulled your first successful cylinder, you start learning something new: the heartbreak of losing a handmade pot.
Let’s talk about why that happens—and why it’s okay.
Losing a Pot: Why Mistakes Are Part of Learning Ceramics
Maybe your beautiful bowl cracked during drying. Maybe the glaze didn’t turn out how you imagined. Or perhaps the piece just disappeared somewhere between trimming and kiln-firing in your shared pottery studio.
If you’re learning how to make ceramics, especially in a community pottery studio, you’ll find out pretty quickly: not every pot survives. And that’s not your fault. A good friend of mine once offered this comforting little gem, which I now share with all my beginner wheel-throwing students:
"This pot gave its life so the next one will live."
We all smile when we say it, but there’s truth in there. Each broken, cracked, or vanished pot is teaching you something—usually more than a perfect one ever could.
Grit and Growth in Pottery: Building Resilience at the Wheel
Learning pottery as an adult or beginner is equal parts creative joy and emotional resilience. You won’t always center perfectly. Your clay might collapse. Your glaze might run. But if you want to succeed in pottery long-term, you need something essential: Grit.
Not the clay dust in your shoes—though there’s plenty of that too—but the quiet determination to keep going when your work doesn’t turn out. If you’re taking a ceramics class in Melbourne or learning in your own home pottery studio, remember this: even professional ceramicists still lose pots. The only difference is, they’ve learned how to keep going.
Beginner Pottery Mistakes: What It Means When Your Pot Cracks
So let’s normalize it: cracking, glazing faults, warping, or even studio accidents are all part of the pottery learning process.
Sometimes it's rushing the drying time. Sometimes it's the kiln atmosphere. Sometimes it’s just mystery. And yes, sometimes your pot might vanish from the shared kiln shelf like it never existed—gone to the studio gods.
But that doesn’t mean you’re failing. Losing a handmade ceramic piece can feel disheartening, especially when you're emotionally invested in it. But in the bigger picture, those mistakes are shaping you into a better ceramic artist.
Studio Life: Community, Loss, and Learning
In one of my beginner pottery classes in Thornbury, a student was trimming a beautiful bowl. They were focused, careful, so proud. Then, in the final step, their wire cutter tugged too hard—and the base split clean off. The room went silent. Then someone called out from across the room:
“One down so the next one lives!”
Everyone laughed. The tension eased. And just like that, the pot became part of their story as a potter—not a failure, but a rite of passage.
This is the quiet beauty of a community pottery studio. It’s not just about making bowls or mugs—it’s about learning how to keep going when things don’t go to plan.
Why You Should Keep Making Handmade Ceramics—Even After a Setback
If you’re learning wheel throwing or starting your first pottery course and you’ve just lost a pot: don’t give up. We’ve all been there. Losing a piece of handmade pottery is part of the process. It doesn’t mean you’re not talented. It means you’re doing the real work—trying, learning, adjusting. Every pot that doesn’t make it is forming the hands that will create your best work. They’re shaping your eye, your timing, and your patience.
So don’t be afraid to get it wrong. Because the next time you sit at the wheel, you’ll do it with just a little more wisdom—and a lot more heart.
Still learning, still losing, and still loving it,
Adele
*dedicated to Sara who had a shit day at the studio. I feel you sister.