Ceramics

Hands: one of the most important parts of your body. Five delicate yet powerful appendages stem from the palm. They move in nimble ways that other parts of your body can’t. There is so much to create just from the actions of your hands.

An artist might pick up a pencil and take it to paper. A couple of crude lines (okay maybe a whole lot more), and a rough sketch of a picture appears. Pick up a paintbrush and dip it into some paint results in a colorful piece.

This past year, I was able to become an amateur potter.

10Tech was a requirement at my high school. Since our school mostly focused on math and science, the administration felt the students needed to become more well-rounded. They established 5Tech and 10Tech class, concentrating on the arts. We had an array of classes to choose from, such as 3D art, architecture, and ceramics.

I chose ceramics. I thought it was going to be fun, relieving the stress and anger of senior year by pounding clay. How wrong was I?

I often walked into that class and out of that class in two very different moods. I entered excited and left stressed. Either the clay was too wet, too dry, or just plainly not obeying my hands. There was never enough time to finish a project, whether it be a sculpture, bowl, coil pot, or mosaic. The end product, when fired and glazed, never matched the vision in my head.

When the school year drew to a close, I learned that clay has a life of its own. You can’t force it to become something; it will take charge and become its own unique work of art. I did use my hands to craft a beautiful piece of art.

The featured image is not my work; I’m not that great.