Potting Progress

More than a year has gone by since I first sat at a potter's wheel with a lump of clay in front of me and tried to center it. By now I can center smallish balls of clay pretty consistently. At first, if I managed to create a vessel of any shape, I was pleased with it. In the past few months I've begun to make stricter demands of myself. I want the vessels to remain centered from start to finish. I want them to have thin walls, so they won't be too heavy. And of course I want them to look graceful.

I've also become more concerned with decoration and finish, less willing to accept whatever happens. Perhaps I've become less playful and spontaneous, and pottery isn't quite as much fun. But I still love the feel of the clay in my hands, the challenge of getting it centered and making it take the shape I want to give it, and it's still fun to get to the class and find a couple of newly fired pieces that I can take home.

Do I have a long term goal?
I'm not sure.
Is making a lot of bowls, cups, plates, and pitchers a long term goal?
For the moment I'm deeply involved in the process, not concerned with the outcome. And I have to remember that I'm doing it for fun!

As with music, the farther I progress, the more possibilities for progress become visible. It's like climbing a mountain: when you get to the top of a foothill, you see the peak that was hidden behind it.

Sometimes I let myself fantasize: I'm going to quit my paying work and devote myself to pottery. I'll open a studio with a store in the front and sell my own work and the work of other (better) ceramicists on commission. More realistically, I imagine buying a good electric kiln and a wheel of my own. But in fact, meanwhile, the two and a half hours a week I spend at pottery lessons is about all the time I can spare for that right now. I have set aside a space in a spare room where I can do some hand building, but in the past few weeks, I haven't even had time for that. I wouldn't take the step of equipping a studio unless I were sure I'd be using it almost every day. Maybe it wouldn't be fun anymore.