Michelle Smiles

Teaching my children to question authority, except mine.

Reinventing the wheel – or how to give up your control issues for 3 hours a week

February7

stock-footage-kid-shaping-of-clay-on-pottery-wheel-and-wetting-hands

 

Steve and I celebrated our 9th anniversary in October. Ninth anniversary is pottery. I might kind of have a thing for pottery. Steve, being the amazing husband that he is, signed me up for a pottery class as my gift. I was so excited – I’ve always wanted to try throwing pottery. I couldn’t take the class the started right after our anniversary because the first class conflicted with Sabrina cheering at a football game (the things we do for our kiddos) so I started the session that began in January. It is 8 weeks for 3 hours each session.

It is so much fun. And so freaking hard. This sounds conceited but I am usually good at things when I put my mind to it. But so far? I suck at pottery. Yet I still love it. Did I mention it is hard? I’ve got the centering down which is what I had always heard was so difficult so I thought I was golden. Nope. For me the difficult part is pulling the walls up. I just can’t quite get the motion and the pressure right. I either put my finger through the wall or I get timid and don’t pull enough clay up from the bottom. And just when I think I’ve discovered all the ways I can destroy my creations, we learn trimming. That went horribly wrong as well. I just finished my 4th class. I have to say last night went way better than the first 3 weeks. We throw 4 pieces each class and I left the class with 4 intact pieces. Previously, I only had 3 pieces total that survived to their first firing.

The process is fun. It is kind of cool to get that dirty as a grown up – I haven’t been that muddy in *mumble mumble* years. I think it is good for me to do something that I suck at but enjoy. It is humbling. And it also makes me loosen up a bit with my control issues. I might seem laid back but only when I am in control *insert evil laugh*. Once I have some complete pieces (still need to glaze and fire again), I’ll share them here. Keep your expectations low. They are ugly. Not rustic. Ugly. But they are mine and I’ll be proud of them.

posted under Crafty
3 Comments to

“Reinventing the wheel – or how to give up your control issues for 3 hours a week”

  1. On February 7th, 2014 at 10:47 am heather Says:

    I took a ceramics class in college and oh how I sucked at it. And my Type A self could not give up the control…at all. I HATED not being able to do it perfectly and could not accept what I was making (ugh). A couple weeks in, I left the wheel and focused on coil pots. 🙂

  2. On February 8th, 2014 at 2:25 pm Crystal Says:

    Can’t wait to see them.

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