#110 – I DID IT! I DID IT! I CENTERED THE LUMP!!!

I understand that seeing a lump of clay on a pottery wheel may not seem noteworthy, but I DID IT!!! I DID IT!!! I CAN”T BELIEVE I DID IT!!! I centered the clay on the pottery wheel all by myself!!!

I started pottery classes about 5 months ago and my constant frustration has been that the first thing you need to be able to do before throwing a piece of pottery is center the clay on the wheel and I haven’t been able to do it. You can’t get to steps B, C, & D if you can’t accomplish step A. Which has left me very reliant on my instructor for help.

Well, I usually go to pottery every Tuesday but this past Tuesday I was away, so I went in this morning hoping to do a make up class. When I got into the studio the classroom was full of life. There were so many people doing so many different things, but no pottery instructor. Apparently Rhea Del Rosario from Plum Pottery East took a much-needed vacation herself. I panicked. The people in the studio welcomed me to stay, but I admitted I could barely keep the clay on the wheel and should probably come back when my teacher was there. They smiled and told me to get quiet and sit at the wheel. They were sure I could do it.

I was pretty sure I was going to throw a lump of clay on the wheel and when it started looking like scrambled eggs, I would be out of there!

I stayed. I was terrified. So many people around me and I pretty much stink at this, but I did stay. I lined up five balls of clay, took a deep breath and tried to remember all the steps involved. My teacher has you push the clay to the center with all of your might envisioning an M&M down in the bottom center and you are pushing toward it. Pretty much, I’ve just thought my instructor was crazy! All I was feeling was arm strain and total chaos as my clay slapped me every time it circled around. But like OB1 Kenobi she would keep saying, use the “force”…you will feel it one day and then it will all make sense…Thank you very much, but 5 months have gone by???? Not feelin’ the “force”!

Today I felt the force!!! Maybe it was going away for a week that allowed all of the lessons to sink in, but it came to me. I pushed in all the right places, I kept my hands firm, I let the wobbles in the clay surface to the top and then bingo, I could feel it in the clay. It was centered and then it all made sense. I did it again and again and again, five times, no problem. I’ve got it!

I feel like I learned to walk today and my mom missed it!!! OK. I’m being corny, but it felt really good to gain one more step so as to not completely suck at something! Oh yeah, what do they call that….learning. I hate learning! I wish everything came easily!