50 Before 50 #1- Pottery Wheel Throwing

September 16, 2023

Waukesha, WI

The journey of 50 new skills has to begin somewhere! I chose to begin by tackling a curiosity that I've had since seeing the movie Ghost when it came out in 1990- how do you make pottery on that cool wheel? There is a wonderful studio called The Potter's Shop not far from our house, so I decided to investigate beginner classes offered there. I lucked out and was able to get three spots in a class on recent Saturday afternoon for me, Joey and Alex.

We arrived 15 minutes early with old clothes on our bodies and open minds ready to be molded (pun intended...). I couldn't hide my enthusiasm- which really embarassed the boys! Our instructor ran through the 5 steps quickly on his wheel- prep, center, drill, open and pull- then it was our turn to give it a try. Initially, it was very frustrating. The clay would come unstuck from the bat (base of the wheel). It would be too wet and collapse. Too dry and it would just come apart. We got to know the instructor very well, as we had many opportunities to start again with a fresh piece of clay and watch while he quickly caught us up to the rest of the class.

The 90 minute class flew by. After the first hour, we each had a piece that we liked well enought to save as a candidate to be glazed and fired. My big accomplishment was taking a raw piece of clay and going through all 5 of the steps successfully by myself!! That was the piece that I chose to keep to get glazed and fired. Joey and Alex each picked out pieces that they were most proud of as well. We'll pick up the final works of art in a few weeks!

First ones to arrive and last ones to leave- sometimes things just happen that way! We made sure to clean up our spots- throwing pottery is messy! It is also a lot of fun, The feeling of the clay on my fingers was very soothing. I can see why people choose this as a hobby- there is something very zen and relaxing about it. My initial curiosity was satisfied, but it left me wanting to try it again! Creating art presents opportunities for lessons to be learned- particularly about the importance of failue. With failure comes experience, and with experience comes confidence, and with confidence comes persistence to achieve our goals. My bowl did not look like the instructors- it didn't look like anyone else's. It was uniquely mine. And uniquely Joey's. And uniquely Alex's.

The journey to learn 50 new skills has begun, and I am so grateful that Joey and Alex shared it with me.