Ceramics and the type A personaility

Its fun and therapeutic, they say...
I sign up for the basic ceramics manual wheel course with Megan.

Ground rules: This course is for beginners to master the basic forms of pottery. No free forms allowed, you build to exact specs and dimensions given. Start with a perfectly straight cylinder, extend it into a tall vase, followed by a bowl, extend it into round vase, build it up into a teapot and make two identical teacups. 

Perfect. A workshop that emphasizes basic techniques. My mum always say “learn a skill, learn the foundation well. Don’t play play.”  This school’s philosophy is in line with mine. 

The Guinea Pig

Megan wanted to do a guinea pig on her first day. 

The Bowl

Perfection

All went well until the day when the clay decided not to collaborate. It was then I discovered "fun and therapeutic" does not apply to everybody doing ceramics, especially when you are a type A person. 

“Stop pushing the clay, understand the material and work with its properties, not against it!!!” I hear Peggy repeating this again and again. I hear you, Peggy. I borrowed the books on clay. I read them... But doing it is so different. 

It took me 2 hours to reach this rounder and round form and if I mould this further I might accidentally make it out of shape. Finally I showed Peggy a form I was satisfied with and she said its not round enough… Seriously?! 

 The Round Vase

Find your center through ceramics they say...

Certainly. I find my neck feeling strained, my shoulders stiff… I am so in tune with myself and my surrounding… I feel stressed from the warm clay within my fingers. I know I forgot to breathe sometimes. I know I need a massage immediately after this. 

But I endured. I know that craftsmanship comes from repeated practice with deliberation and focus to gain proficiency This is not as easy as I thought. I looked over at Megan, composed and peacefully working on her cup. She seemed chilled and did not seem to have any problems with her shapes. A little voice kept telling me “what if its only me, what if I am really not very good at this?”. Ugh.

The Cup

Someone seems to have a lot of fun...

The Jar

Having a product to show for your efforts to justify for precious time spent seem to be a must in this Instagram era. If you have nothing to show, it never happened! But making this takes time. There is the creating, waiting, drying, trimming, glazing, firing etc…. OMG...It is not instant…

I reflected on the handle of my teapot. I need to let this fancy shape rest and harden. Was waiting for things to dry worth my very expensive hourly rate? What do I do in the mean time? If I have known this needs to harden, I would have done the handle first (except that the spout also needs to rest) Every minute should be productive… I don’t like to waste time. I am stressed. 

The Tea Set

Lesson 8. Glazing. I lost it.

Color is not my forte. I took an hour and remains undecided. Megan was literally rolling her eyeballs. Yes I cannot imagine my final product with a color... I don't like colors...I am stressed. I had imagine renovating my room with a new shelf to display my masterpieces.. I am happy with the forms, I work hard on them. Now the last bit.... to glaze... there is no certainly!!!! Depending on the time of the day, the clay I use, the technique I apply the glaze, the location I place my work in the kiln, the final color can come out totally different.... 

Frankly, I am panicking. But Megan is here so I need to look cool. All my efforts leading to that perfect final product may be destroy by a final glaze in a firing processI cannot control.... I suddenly wonder why I join this class... 

Lesson learnt

Type A people can't do ceramics... But type A people needs to do ceramics... I discovered so much of myself... I thought this would be a breeze for me... but it has been a truly difficult 10 lessons...