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| Bowl, wheel-thrown yellow stoneware, 8 cm in height, 19 cm in diameter. |
Last few months I terribly neglected my potter’s wheel. Although I was very productive in making new plaster moulds, slip casting and developing new forms. So yesterday, I decided to take a seat in front of my wheel again and do some good old fashioned wheel throwing. Luckily I was in the right mood for it: not to happy, not to sad and not to excited, just melancholically joyful.
There is something
meditative in the process of throwing: your eyes are attached to the rotating
clay on the wheel. At a certain point you are becoming one with the growing
pot. You take a deep breath and exhale slowly as you bend the clay between your
finger joints. Or you don’t breathe at all. Even your heart beats slower. Your
mind is actually free from all thoughts. At the same time you are not lost in
some kind of nirvana. Quite the contrary: you are very present and aware of
your body, your feelings and the clay in front of you. At the end of the throwing
session you feel more centred and peaceful. Not only that you went through some
mental hygiene process here, but you have created something with your hands. Something
you can see, touch and maybe use one day. Now that you know all this, don’t you
think that your Bircher muesli will taste much much better, if you eat it from
the bowl that you have made with your own hands?
