Wabi Sabi Pottery: an exercise in letting go!

I beat the winter blues this year by signing up for the first pottery class at the newly built Trout Lake Community Center. I was reluctant to join for different reasons; partly because I'm pretty tired in the evenings, plus it lasted past my usual bedtime of 9:00 pm and I usually get that art buzz of ideas and can't get to sleep. But I decided to join anyway. 

What a fascinating mix of people! We were mostly beginners who had never sat at a wheel before and were anxious to get started. Since I was my quieter self, due to being tired, I listened more than usual. It seemed difficult for some to relax and simply enjoy playing. I heard a lot of: "Am I doing this right?","Is this how it's supposed to work?", " I can't get mine to work.".

 If you've ever taken a pottery class, especially if you have ever tried to throw anything on a wheel before, you know how patient and accepting you have to be of anything that might have some use. You may have the intention of making a beautiful platter or pasta bowl or even a simple cereal bowl, but soon enough, as the clay whips around the wheel and you desperately try to control it, you learn to love your warped, dented soy sauce plate. At every stage; throwing, trimming, firing, and glazing, you must relinquish your idea of what your piece will be like. So long my beautiful set of matching cups! Yay to my new soap dish, coin bowl and pencil holder!

As in the ancient Japanese aesthetic of Wabi Sabi which describes a certain beauty as "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete", it also acknowledges three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect. Pottery allows you enjoy this aesthetic by forcing you to let go of perfectionism and control and rejoice in dents, cracks, unevenness, and unpredicted colors.

I did get home late, and I did have trouble getting to sleep, but one thing I can say is that, there is nothing like eating breakfast out of a bowl you made yourself! You do get better at it. Promise. But even our teacher who could throw a perfectly symmetrical piece, was still surprised to see the final outcomes!