birthday week: day3: potters clay

Today is my actual birthday. Again, by happenstance, I ended up with an extra day at the sitters. With only a slight twinge of guilt I dropped Tobo off at MsJ's as arranged and then rolled on out to Boulder to sling clay at Mudslingers Pottery School. They offer lots of different options, but I was able to get a one-on-one lesson on the pottery wheel for about $40 for the session. I have had a quick intro to the wheel over 20 *ahem ahem* years ago when I was an art teen. What I know now after this session is I had a quick run in with "centering" but nothing really more concrete than that. I met J and we jumped right in. I learned a lot of technically stuff but really what I took away from this was:

• it was something messy yet controlled with a different part of my brain
• I had to remember how to let go of "fixing it" and instead pay attention with my hands to what was happening on the wheel in front of me.
• I had to slow down and not rush. When I first started J said my motions were random and erratic. Took a few big breaths and I was able to focus on what was actually happening instead of what I thought was suppose to happen.
• A lot of what you learn is the different tools your hands become when you are working with wet clay. There are something like 7 steps to get to a pot/cup/whatever and you use your hands differently for each step.
• You work with the wheel instead of against the wheel.
• You work at removing the wet clay with your hands. That's it. No force necessary.
• You build the inside first. This is a very novel idea to me. It is a new way of looking at creating than anything I've ever done.

Overall this was a refreshing attitude adjuster for me. When I first started it also highlighted a couple of mom things I do now that are not normal Cat things, like obsessively rinsing my hands in the bucket through out the project or counting Everything. It was nice to put these things a side for a morning/afternoon. I spend entirely too much time doing that sort of thing as a way of staying on top of all the mom stuff.

The only sad thing is I forgot to take a picture of my cup and the bowl I made. I hope to change that when I go back in a week or so to glaze them to be fired. Many other good things happened today too (day started with me getting a book in the mail, lots of birthday wishes, joygirl's rendition of happy birthday on my voicemail, flowers from paul when I got home, home cooked dinner with JN) but this was the thing that was just for me. I think I've found a new birthday tradition.