The Joy of Mud

I surprised myself tonight with the creation of a rather spectacular pot! I grabbed a hunk of clay and threw it on the wheel and didn't realize until I looked down at it how large it was. My sweet and very talented instructor amazes me because she is almost completely deaf, but she reads lips and can hear a little bit if you yell loudly. She and I had a very noisy, well enunciated debate over whether or not I had the ability to handle that much clay. She won and convinced me to at least give it a try. After showing me some new techniques which are necessary when the pot gets too large to manage in the way we had been taught, she let me loose with my creation. Mind you, it isn't the size of a toilet bowl or even a punch bowl, but it was big for my experience. It turned into a very nice-looking something....I haven't decided what yet....but it would make a nice, big flower pot. It is by far the best thing I've ever made on a potter's wheel, and I can hardly wait to fire it and glaze it and see how it will turn out. I'm confident that it will be the first thing I won't want to hide away in a closet somewhere and pull out now and then for a good laugh, like the sad little clay roses I made in elementary school.

The thing I'm appreciating most about pottery is the sensuality of it. The clay just feels good. When it comes out of the bag, it is soft and gooey and ready to become something on the wheel. You can slap it and punch it and mold it into the perfect ball. Then you SMACK it onto the wheel. You bury your hands in a bucket of water and drench the clay. Then it gets slimy....soaking wet and spinning and making slurpy noises as it throws drops of muddy water all over your clothes. After it sits for a week or so, and most of the moisture is gone, it is cold and smooth and still rather pliable. It goes upside-down on the wheel for trimming, and the little bits shave off like milk chocolate curls. From the moment I walk into the studio until the moment I walk out, I am enjoying myself. Even cleanup is fun because there is such a big, nasty mess, but it disappears quickly with a sponge and water. I appreciate that I can enjoy all of the steps in the process. It's not like sewing, where you have to pin and cut patterns forever before the actual stitching begins.

Hmmm....well who knew I could write so much about dirt and water?! Suffice it to say that I enjoy being a potter. I highly recommend pottery class to anyone who has ever stood there at a demonstration, as I have many times, and been fascinated, wishing they knew how to do it.