Pottery blues
It is a wintery Saturday, and I woke up reluctantly to get to my pottery studio, a public studio where potters of all ages, background and skill levels convene to make objects.
Though I know most of the community members’ faces working in the studio, I have yet to establish friendship through persistent small talks so I generally keep to myself. Boy I struggled. Two months ago, I flew to China to learn ‘a particular set of skills’ aka Jingdezhen’s (JDZ) millennia old pottery making techniques for two weeks. I marveled at the artisans’ precision and perfect circles at throwing and trimming pots. Most artisans become artisans by completing a three-year training with a master potter. They could start as early as fifteen.
Back in the cold studio, my bowl was not round, and I punctured the base of a vase. My glazing is dripping all over my bisques, and I could not care less about how it turns out, I just want it to be fired before the end of my class cycle. You see weather is everything in pottery making, clay dries slower in the winter, and you can’t rush clay in pottery-making. But I paid fees to use the studio for seven weeks, and the clock is ticking.
My existential crisis is that I could not practice the techniques I learned in JDZ because it’s a different pottery making culture here all together. How do you eat rice when everybody else is eating pizza? The clay is not porcelain clay, hence it is rougher. Porcelain trimming is dusty and the small particles could irritate other people. The tools and equipments are different. As I moan quietly, I realize that this is my life struggle too. I am constantly trying to eat rice around pizza-eaters.
As I was about to leave the studio sulking, E came up to me and check in with me. I told her my concerns. “ I am too much in my head”, I said. “ I have to reconcile the difference of technique and challenges before I can move forward!” Then she said, “ Well, trimming (dry or wet technique) is not about making something better or worse, it is working with what you already have.” A light bulb lightens. I can only work with what I have at the moment. I was privileged to go to China and learn from the artisans, and I am lucky to even find a studio and time to keep making pots despite having a 9–5 and hundred other art projects at hand. I left knowing that it is always healthy to share my concerns and the knots in my head with another person. Through our conversation, I untie a tight knot that I would not have otherwise loosen alone.
