It's Only Clay
by Pat Northcutt
That year when my husband asked what I wanted for Christmas, I realized I didn’t want another thing. “Honey,” I said, “I want to take pottery lessons.”
Pottery lessons. Where had that come from? For years we had passed a sign advertising “Keepers Pottery: Sales – Lessons,” but I never worked up the courage to check into the lessons. Now, though, I was surprised at how much I wanted to learn to work with clay.
Christmas came and brought two new skillets, a gift card to a favorite book store, and a note promising a garden. Kernie had called about the lessons but didn’t get an answer, and I put it out of my mind. When the potter called a few weeks later, apologizing for just now getting the message and asking when would I like to start lessons, I was excited, scared, nervous, and wondering what had I been thinking?
That first night, the heat from the kilns warmed the studio; the welcome from the potter put me at ease. I wasn’t sure she would be able to deliver on her promise that within two sessions I would have thrown, trimmed and glazed a pot…but it was worth a try. She sat down at a wheel and had me sit across from her as she threw a pot to demonstrate the process. It looked so simple, so easy. Then it was my turn.
We swapped places. I took the wedge of clay from Julie and tried to slam it on the center of the wheel. “Brace your elbows on your knees, use both hands, and press in to center the clay,” Julie commanded. I tried. Everything was awkward to me, pressing the wheel pedal with my right foot and trying to squish the clay into submission, trying to control my impulse to get up and leave.
“There you go, it’s getting there,” Julie encouraged as she sprinkled water over the clay. “Keep going. Spin faster….no, not that fast. Slow down.” And so it went, until finally the clay was centered and ready to work.
Julie talked me through all the steps in opening up the clay and pulling up the walls to make a bowl. I couldn’t believe the way the clay responded to my fingers, or how satisfying it felt to work with the mud. When I finished the bowl, I had to draw a wire under it to release it from the wheel. She had coached me through the process without a hint of criticism. Looking at what I had done made me want to laugh, but instead fat tears were rolling down my face. Something inside me broke open that night, something I can’t explain…but it gave me a clearer picture of the skill, time, vision and intense focus a potter spends on each vessel he makes.
Everything I’ve learned applies to my understanding of God and the scripture about the potter and the clay. Here’s the list:
- The potter can choose whatever clay he wishes.
- When the potter sits down at the wheel, he already knows what he’s going to make.
- The clay has to be centered on the wheel before the potter can work with it.
- The potter keeps his eyes and both hands on the clay the whole time he works with it.
- Sometimes the potter has to build up a weak spot in the clay to make it stronger; sometimes he has to trim off excess.
- The potter has to release the pot from the wheel and let it rest for a while.
- After the pot has dried, the potter trims it to reveal its true shape, then puts the pot into the first firing. The pot comes out hard but fragile, and ready to be glazed.
- The true color and beauty of the glaze aren't revealed until the pot goes through a second firing. The kiln is heated to a high temperature, melting the glaze and sealing the pot to make it suitable for use.
- The potter can save scraps of clay, rehydrate them, wedge them together, and make something beautiful out of scrap. He doesn’t throw the clay away.
We are changed by the touch of the Potter’s hand.
Jeremiah 18: 1-7 1The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words.” 3 So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.
