Gift of Patience

When I was getting back into pottery, it was a goal of mine to make a ramen bowl set.

Why? I didn’t have any bowls big enough or appropriate for noodle soup at my apartment.It was the end of November 2019 and I had just came back from Morocco. I came into the studio after a long day of work ready to zone out and throw on the wheel. I plugged in my headphones, wedged some clay, and set up my station at the pottery wheel. Centering, pulling, expanding, my first piece was starting to shape successfully. I was proud of my big bowl and I decided to gift this bowl to my mom for Christmas. I was on a high from my first piece and decided that I would make a ramen bowl set for my mom and a planter and oatmeal bowl for my sister. Successful throwing session :) I covered the pieces in newspaper and wrapped it in plastic so that I could return in two days to trim them.

Upon my return, the pieces were still closer to the wet stage than leather hard. With the realization that I was flying back to California in a few weeks, I calculated all the steps that were remaining. Trimming, bone dry, bisque fire, glaze, fire again, then pick up. That in itself would be about 4 visits to the studio, which was the exact amount of open studio days left before my flight to the Bay Area. If all goes according to planned.

I needed to have the pieces trimmed that day. I took out the hair dryer to bring the clay to leather hard. Trimming - somewhat a success. Now I had to bring my pieces to bone dry so that they could be bisque fired. I turned on the hair dryer and started the process. This was a mistake.

I heated the clay faster than it wanted to and a small crack appeared. “Not in a bowl!” I thought to myself. I tried to fix the bowl to the best of my ability, but I could only repair it so much.

This was the moment where I was reminded about the beauty of patience. It was also a reminder on why I love pottery. I love how therapeutic it is, how I’m allowed to freely create, and to experiment. I love being able to use my hands to create something from nothing to something. Something so beautiful comes out of it when you’re patient. Fast movements and distractions can quickly ruin any piece. These are the moment when you learn to either let go or adapt.

After my pieces were bisque fired, I found a crack in my sister’s oatmeal bowl, the planter, and a minor one in the small ramen bowl. I scraped the cracks a bit to try and mend them, but it was up to see what will happen after I glazed them. I wanted to bring out the speckles of the clay so I decided to use transparent glaze and dip the pieces in white glaze for a dripped rim.

Also, look how much they shrank! :O I always forget to measure the shrinkage, but at least they were still suitable for their initial purpose :)

 The final product.

I can say I am quite pleased with how they turned out and was excited to give them to my family as gifts. There’s a story in each piece and it’ll only get better from here :)