Jan DSaAbu Dhabi, 2012: It’s been 6 weeks since I took the first journey towards pottery making. Now some may think that I’m stretching myself too thin, trying various crafts, arts and dance styles. But for those of you who know me very well, will know that such experimentation through a range of arts is my ticket to a rebirth of my creative soul. And I use these methods to keep me alive, to help me reach beyond my comfort zone. And in doing so, I hope to help awaken your slumbering creativity and re-ignite the passion.
Homa Farley, Owner of Abu Dhabi Pottery, shows us the basics of making a pot.
May I point out that I thought that pottery making was going to be fun. Turned out that it was quite hard. My brain couldn’t get round to the fact that I had to be incredibly patient in making pottery. All I wanted was to just play with the clay (at least my child did). Then I said, under my breath, sweating as I tried to get the clay to do things my way, “This is too hard. I just don’t have the patience.” Saving grace in the form of stern advice from Homa Farley (i.e. “If you want to make pottery, you need to have patience otherwise don’t even try making pottery), put me back on track. They say, “When the student is ready, the teacher appears.” Thus started my venture out of my comfort zone (which usually starts with my perspiring in slight fear). Thankfully, I stayed put by taking pictures of the process and not being scared of it all.
Pottery students Tara and John rolling away into success.
Paola Trejo, another advanced student, is making a tea pot!
Mind you, if you are seriously into pottery, you can kill manicure goodbye. I had to clip my long nails in order to ensure the insides of the pots were smooth and not strewn with my claws prints.
Sure, I’m smiling, but I photoshopped the perspiration away. This is me, smoothing the insides of the piece before it’s sent to dry.
The finished pot piece after a serious amount of ‘pinching’ the clay out and upward.
The handcraftedness of the pot with its cracks and uneven surface reminds me that humanity is like clay that is ‘pinched’ into different crucibles by life’s challenges and therefore it’s up to us to mould ourselves around these challenges lest we lay stagnant and dry up in a pitiful manner, only to be used as scrap clay.
Time to clean and smooth the surfaces!
My manicure now definitely a thing of the past, my fingers were plastered in a mix of water and clay as I rubbed out the crevices. Now this is good handcrafted therapy, as I like to call it, simply because I didn’t know what shape my clay pot was going to be. No conceptualisation. Just powerful mindful meditation the handcrafted way.
This is where the freshly prepared pottery pieces will sit to dry for a few weeks.
With the pot out of the way, the next piece of pottery (in slab form) was easy on me. I suppose I felt that the warm up session was out of the way, and I was ready to be grilled with creativity. This is where ideas of using a bit of wire and crochet to warm a wall hanging for this slab came up. I raced through this much easier.
Roll the slab to the dimensions that is needed.
‘Cutting’ time
Rolling some texture into the clay. Reminds me of my own experience with Silver Metal clay technique
I’ve cut the slab into three pieces. Have an idea to actually hold these pieces together with wire!
Punch them holes. You need to clean the holes so that they don’t remain jagged.
We got to sign our names on the pieces.
Thus ends our pottery therapy stint. Part II of this article happened a few days before the festive season.
Visit Abu Dhabi Pottery.
[…] Dhabi, 2013: This follows my previous article on Pottery Making workshop experience. I was delighted to see the pieces had survived the drying process. Those who […]