Just like a baby taking its first steps, learning a new skill feels difficult. You wobble, fall, get up, wobble a little less, fall and get up again. Making it across the room can seem like a world away to a baby. Making large pieces in clay, throwing mugs and big bowls seemed impossible to me, too.
But I did it. One step at a time.
Here are some pictures of my most recent steps on my clay path.
A hand built jar with leaf accents and a 'leaf' shaped lid.
Large hand built pieces.
A large hand built vase with marbled clay.
A kiln full of wheel thrown pieces including a dozen mugs, half a dozen bowls with sculptural handles, and experiments with sgraffito. Here's a post bisgue pic of some of the bowls.
Just like the baby doesn't stop when she masters getting across a room, I'm not stopping either. I'm moving on to throwing bigger and better pieces and glazing at cone 6 in my own kiln. I'm sure I'll wobble and some pieces will fall. But I'll get the results I want by remembering the real key to success.
Take one small step at a time. Pick yourself up. Repeat.
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