Clay Lessons

Everyone who has tried getting into pottery knows that making pottery is far more challenging than you would expect at first.

When you handle clay, you immediately notice that there is more to it than slamming some clay together to get some form or vessel, give it a colour and voilà, there you have your perfect mug or plate or decorative piece. Creations in clay might require hundreds or even thousands hours of practice and, if you want to get deep into the subject, a ton of technical knowledge.

Not only you need to understand the material and know the different stadia and types of clay: plastic, leather hard, bone dry, bisque fired, high fired, earthenware, stoneware, porcelain, bone china… in order to know what kind of operations are possible, but there are also endless challenges in the different decoration techniques, clay- and glaze formulation, firing techniques… just to name a few of the options.

The possibility to continue learning and improving in clay is what makes it so appealing and interesting to me. For me clay has the ability to keep me always on my toes!

As described in my book “healing through clay; a journey to self-acceptance and stress relief”, I see a lot of parallelisms between the lessons I learn through clay and lessons to life.

I recently reflected about the following two considerations while I was working on a joint project with my friend Alessandra, who is a very talented illustrator.

LESSON NUMBER 1 LEARN TO FAIL

An important lesson you learn when working with clay is acceptance of failure. Even when you know what you’re doing, some pieces will just come out wrong. Cracks may appear or glaze might run, designs will blur… you name it. There are so many variables to working with clay that at any stage your piece might actually turn out ready to bin. Sometimes, even at a distance of days from the finishing of the piece, the glaze might jump off, or crackle. Being a potter is never dull. It is just the way it is: there is an amount of loss when you make pots; it is inevitable even for the most experienced potter. The healthiest way to deal with failure in life and in pottery, is to consider them as lessons learnt. Not a failure as such, but a step closer to success, as you have discovered a way of working you wouldn’t choose the next time in the same situation. In this sense, pottery is like life, a winding road, full of side roads and alternative paths and tracks, some will lead to successful experiences and some won’t. Failure is a lesson learnt and there is no need to beat ourselves up over it.

LESSON NUMBER 2 LET GO OF CONTROL

Another lesson in clay I have learned, is that you never have full control of things. You might have ticked all the boxes according to your technical knowledge and experience, but also in that case a surprise might be just around the corner, ready to reveal itself. It might be a change in clay or glaze formulation, a scarcity of a raw material, an altered drying process or a different firing schedule due to worn spirals. Again, a healthy attitude would require to let go of worries and frustrations and accept the new and surprising situation, maybe even by embracing it.

You’ll feel much better once you learn these lessons and filter your emotions through these life hacks. Both as a potter and as a person.

Jul 31, 2021