Recent Wheel Throwing Antics

I threw 8 bowls in 2 hours today, and I’ve never felt more proud of myself! They were (mostly) consistent in design and weight and I am genuinely so happy with how they look. After my throwing drought, today’s success was very much needed. I have been struggling a lot with throwing since I moved to Saratoga, and I’ve been chalking it up to having to use clay I’m relatively unfamiliar with. That being said, I do think it is (was?) a mental block that I didn’t want to admit to. Imposter syndrome, and all that. My walls were thick, I didn’t like how the clay felt, I wasn’t wedging well, and I felt very out of my zone because this studio is so much more wheel throwing focused than my last one. It seems like everyone around me is prolific at throwing, and I cannot stop comparing myself to others. At CAC in Port Chester, many of the staff members were learning how to throw along side me, and because of that I didn’t feel alone in learning how to do it, and it felt okay making things that were, frankly, bad. Most of us didn’t call ourselves throwers at all! SCAC is full of amazingly talented throwers. Luckily, I think it’s starting to rub off on me.

(My flock of bowls ready to be trimmed :o )

I have a complicated relationship with throwing. The only formal ceramics class I was able to take in school was ceramic sculpture. There were two pottery wheels in the very back corner of the classroom, and we were told we were allowed to use them, but Nancy would NOT be teaching wheel throwing. There were a few times where I set out to try and teach myself how to throw via YouTube tutorials, and whatever knowledge I could remember from my summer of 2014 wheel throwing camp, and it was always extremely difficult and frustrating because I really had no idea what I was doing. I was able to create one absurdly thick bowl, though. I painstakingly underglazed little animal crossing fruits on it, and I was so proud of it. I never really spent too much time throwing in school because the idea of cleaning the wheel afterwards put me off of it. 

Since then, the prospects of wheel throwing seemed scary and unobtainable to me. When I started my fellowship at CAC in Port Chester, I wanted to explore making functional work. I knew it was possible to hand build it, but everything I made was chunky and messy and a bit all over the place. I took my first official wheel throwing class a few months after I started at CAC, and while it was a great introduction, I don’t think I went into it with the amount of patience you need to have when learning a new skill. I made some (bad) teeny bowls, some extremely fragile cups, and I still didn’t really know how to marry my sculptural work to my functional stuff, so the surface decoration was also kinda atrocious. That being said, I did put my heart into them and cared for them very deeply. I still use one of those cups to hold the stamps I use. Maybe one day I’ll glaze it.

After this class session ended, I didn’t really touch the wheel too often, because frankly I didn’t particularly enjoy it. It wasn’t until many months later where I decided to take another wheel throwing class with a different instructor (shout out to Avery!!!) and it was like night and day! Something I continuously tell my students is that different artists prefer different techniques. Someone might center their clay one way, while someone else does it another way. One artist might open up the floor with both thumbs pulling away from each other, while another prefers to drag the clay open with their fingers pulling towards their body. Although some people may have very strong opinions about this, I’m of the opinion that there isn’t necessarily a right way to throw (although there are ways that are better than others). All of this to say, taking my second wheel throwing class and seeing things being done in different ways than my first really helped me figure out what worked best for me. This gave me the confidence to continue to practice on my own, and really grow into my identity as a potter.

Teaching an introduction to wheel throwing class also was a great way to hone my skills, as I am truly a believer in teaching someone something is a great way to learn it better yourself. Or however the phrase goes.

I feel as though I’m out of my wheel throwing block, and I’m excited to continue to work towards consistent thrown pieces that feel like my work, and that I’m proud to sign.