More Thoughts On Making Stuff

maybe you need to hear it?

I was in ceramics this morning and I kept thinking about this Ira Glass quote I heard once. I actually couldn't remember it was Ira Glass at the time; but I kept thinking about it kind of on a loop as I squashed my failed jug back into the clay bag. I have been doing ceramics for a couple of months now-- like maybe four, on and off?-- and I am not very good. Actually I am pretty bad!

I have made 1 jug I quite like and I have hopes that this one plate I’m working on right now will be ok. But I have made 5 bad jugs and a really horrible soap dish, both of which are still in my house, and a bad mug that got broken and a bad spoon rest I gave my dad for Christmas.

I actually made some ok Christmas ornaments which were ok even though a child could have made them: heart shapes, initials painted on, ribbon through the top.

But the tally is not in my favour, overall. It is especially not in my favour when you count up all the things that got squished up and returned to the bag of clay before they ever got a chance to be born. Even the one solitary jug I do like is exceptionally flawed. You wouldn’t give it to someone as a present, I suppose is what I mean. Which means that maybe the only thing I like that I have made is the plate I haven’t made yet: it’s terracotta with white slip over it and I am going to draw two hands into it, like outstretched, like they are giving you things, into the white slip so you will see the terracotta underneath.

I really like drawing hands now because I put a lot of effort into being able to do it, and now I kind of have the muscles down. Drawing is another thing I am pretty bad at, but it is something I do a lot anyway, and I have got a lot better since I started doing it more.

I started doing this thing at the beginning of the year which has, five months in, been very helpful and transformative for my writing especially, but also my life overall. I wanted to tell you about it in case it was helpful.