609

I've got a brand new bag of clay. It's called 609 and it's like silken putty in my hands. It feels as if I could make anything with this mud. Oh, how I wish I could.

Despite watching numerous pottery demos on pulling, followed by diligent practice with my new beautiful clay, I have yet to pull a good cylinder. I see now that the bowl has been my form of choice because a proper cylinder is not required. Which means that I have been skipping right over a fundamental skill in order to get to the "fun part" of creating a form that comes naturally to me. That sounds familiar. Once I've decided to do something, I tend to jump right in and figure things out as I go along. This approach generally works, but is not hazard free. Sometimes I end up backtracking in order to learn how to do things "properly." My way often turns out to be the hard way. Last week, this Snap Judgment piece reminded me that doing things the hard way, is a curse that can be broken.

My previous post was a bit Eeyorish, with some of Pooh's optimism stirred in. I hope it wasn't too depressing, or too saccharine. It's just that, lately, my good fortune has driven me to wonder, "What will go terribly wrong next?"

Tomorrow, I'll ignore impending doom, throw on the wheel, and enjoy great music at LouFest. Life is good. Really.