If at first you don’t succeed, try again. And again. And again.

And again. My first try cracked completely through the bottom. I didn’t let it stop me. Nope. I kept working on my wheel throwing, and finally threw a nice small porcelain bowl and trimmed a decent foot. But, I wanted more than just a nice bowl.

So, I went to work coiling handles and sculpting leaves and buds. Then, I decided to add feet. Why? I have no idea now; it just seemed like a good idea at the time. I thought it gave the bowl a little more ‘presence’. I rolled 4 feet, textured them and attached them to the bottom of the bowl. Success!

Or so I thought. That’s when the handle cracked off on one side. I got out the slip and repaired it. It stayed on for a while and started to crack again. I tried again.

Then two of those cute little feet fell off. I put them back on and took them to be bisque. They fell off. I put them back on. They fell off again. Instead of trying to put them back on again, I decided to fire them off and attach them later.



I rubbed the leaves and buds with oxides. I underglazed those ‘cute’ little feet and glazed the body of the bowl in black. I propped up the bowl on a kiln block with two feet on and two feet off. Today, I glued the two feet on with epoxy. And, here at long last, is the bowl standing on its own four feet.

It’s been a year since I started taking wheel throwing classes. It’s been difficult, frustrating and very disappointing. At first, I had many, many failures. It was tempting to give up. But my stubbornness kicked in and I kept at it. Slowly, very, very slowly, my small lopsided bowls turned into better and bigger bowls.

I didn’t succeed on my first, second or even third try. It was trying. But I kept at it and finally, I did succeed.

Ok, no more cute little feet. My next bowls are just thrown and trimmed porcelain and so far, fingers crossed, no cracks!