Lessons in Non-Attachment the Clay Way

I've spoke of these lessons before~ you create, you may grow to love what you create, and then, sometimes... you have to let it go. It's all really very zen if you think about it. I started this Micaceous pot back in early Feb~ a "casserole dish for one." (Sometimes a regular size casserole is just a bit more than you really need!)

My Micaceous Class doesn't start 'til May... but what I am beginning to learn about myself is that my passion for clay knows no bounds, and while taking 2 classes & working certainly is enough... I can't seem to help from working on these pots & making the bears on the side. Which leaves precious little time for the other life stuff... but I digress. Back to the pot. Looks like a chocolate cake, doesn't it?

:)

Things were going along just fine, and I was fairly happy w/ the size & shape of it.

But, with clay, as is with life... timing is everything. I cut the lid before it was time... and as it was drying, it warped & cracked... rendering my lid useless.

But, you know me... I rarely give up (though sometimes perhaps I should!) So I figured I'd try making another lid. 

Now, keep in mind, the pot itself was already fairly dry, so trying to find the right size puki to build my lid in was a bit challenging considering I had to try to accommodate/guess about the shrinkage rate.

This was a good start. I figured I could go back & make repairs & fill in the gaps later to get a good lid fit. (Now that is one thing I love about Micaceous clay- the ability to make such repairs, or add handles, or fill cracks when the clay is in a dry state. You really can't get away with that w/ the commercially processed clays.)

Above, getting ready to add the handle, below the new lid & the original warped & cracked one.

Hmmm... well, I figured I could repair this crack, too... though it was in a risky spot~ at the bottom of the pot near where I had added my first coil.

I figured what the heck... I'll fill it (as I was in the process of doing in the pic above) sand it, polish it, burnish it... it'll be fine. But after speaking w/ my instructor, I found that these particular cracks are persnickety about repairs. They will often show up again as hairline cracks where the repairs are done- after they are fired... or worse, when on the stovetop. Soooooo, after all that work and all that time spent, I must say goodbye to this pot (and dang it~ note the much better lid fit!)

It only took a few minutes to return to the mud from which it started. It'll be recycled & mixed in w/ more clay to have life again as a new pot in the not-too-distant future. I do have one more pot this happened to, but I just couldn't quite throw it into the slop bucket yet! I may try firing it just to see what happens. It's all a learning process either way, so we'll see! And while the Clay will teach you these lessons in non- attachment over & over again... sometimes, well, you just cling to a special piece... not wanting to let go. I'm getting much better with this issue in my wheel throwing class-if it's not going the way I like, I have far less problems w/ recycling it, or if a potentially nice pot turns out crappy because of my glaze experimentations, I can generally let that go as well. I think the time involvement (many hours for one pot) is the reason I become so attached to the Mica Clay Pots, but perhaps in time, I'll learn to let that go, too.

:)