Confessions of a Hand Builder

Here it is: I never learned to throw on the wheel. I tried, a couple of times. Each time I was impatient with the amount of time it took to learn. I turned my back on the wheel and dedicated myself to using only pinching, slab and coil techniques. I thought I could make anything I wanted and never need a wheel.

And so you can. But lately there have been stirrings of doubt here in Raisin Studio. Sometimes, I think, it would be a hell of a lot easier to make part of or all of whatever project I have in mind on the wheel instead of laboriously building it by hand. 

And then I got accepted into the summer clay workshop at Haystack, "Developing your Personal Aesthetic in Clay." 

And it struck me: how can I "develop my personal aesthetic" without having the flexibility of using any tool or technique necessary to best create the object I envision? 

Then there was the SHAME of not knowing how to throw! I am tired of my own weak excuses for being an artist in clay and still not knowing how to do it.

So here I am a few weeks into a clay class at the local arts council ceramics studio making earnest attempts to learn the basics. It's taken hours to make a few simple little vessels, let alone making anything expressive that didn't just happen by accident.

I am patient now. I will take the time, and I will learn. Eventually. "No expectations," Kathleen, the studio head at the arts council commented when she heard about my struggles.

(Photos courtesy of Deena Miller)