Meme: 31 Days of December: Day 7 My Week
Dec. 11th, 2015 05:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
escritoireazulDay 01: a picture of you taken this year
Day 02: talk about music this year
Day 03: talk about movies this year
Day 04: talk about television this year
Day 05: talk about books this year
Day 06: talk about food this year
Day 07: your week, in great detail
Day 08: your Hanukkah wish list
Day 09: a photo that makes you happy taken this year
Day 10: a photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11: your favorite photo this year
Day 12: your favorite website this year
Day 13: new items you’ve added to collections this year
Day 14: What you are proud of from this year
Day 15: something that made you laugh this year
Day 16: something that made you sad this year
Day 17: something that made you happy this year
Day 18: what is on your desk right now
Day 19: what you learned this year
Day 20: talk about hobbies this year
Day 21: what you are most pleased about this year
Day 22: talk about art this year
Day 23: What you did to have fun this year
Day 24: a photo of you and your family
Day 25: Talk about politics this year
Day 26: A list of what you got for Hanukkah
Day 27: A new years resolution
Day 28: Something which caught your interest this year
Day 29: Travel you did this year
Day 30: Your plans for New Years
Day 31: Best moment of the month
Day 7: your week, in great detail
Yeah, no. My week involves a lot of job hunting and being depressed. I went to pottery class this week, though, and that was fun. I actually managed to take a piece off the wheel, for the first time in weeks. I needed the win that brought; I've been feeling like a complete failure, and even considering quitting (I came to the end of one cycle, i.e, the end of one big bag of clay), because it felt like I wasn't making any progress and I wasn't learning anything, so all I was doing was wasting my instructor's time and all that clay. (Technically, the clay can be processed to be reused, but it still feels like a failure.) But I finally finished a piece enough to take it off the wheel, and I actually figured out what was going wrong when I try to raise the walls (which is how you make the walls an even thickness from top to bottom and add a little height). That was a relief, and I'm proud that I figured out I needed the win of finishing something on the wheel, because I could have tried to make the new piece taller, but there was the risk I would ruin it, and I needed the win more than I needed a more perfect piece. That is a concept that is difficult for me and my perfectionism.
Also, the first piece I ever took off the wheel at my very first class has been glazed and fired, and while there are so, so many errors, it is a gorgeous blue color and really thrilling to hold something that I created.
no subject
Date: 2015-12-12 11:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-12-17 07:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-12-13 12:35 am (UTC)If it helps, I can offer you what my mom, who is a potter and teaches classes at a community art center, has to say about pottery. It's been very helpful to me in countering my own perfectionism (in other areas, obviously).
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Date: 2015-12-17 07:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-12-19 01:05 am (UTC)1. "Perfection" is boring. Achieving the perfect shape just for the sake of the perfect shape is meaningless to her. Mastering the forms and techniques is important, but mainly because you'll be able to play with more things afterward. In her opinion, if it's hand-thrown, it should look like it, otherwise why put in the effort? (Usually she makes this point with a bunch of snarky comments about lack of character and mass manufacturing. xD)
2. Function! Just because it looks great doesn't mean it is. The important question is, does it do what you want it to do, how you want it to do it? You might have thrown a perfectly cylindrical and pretty-looking mug, but if you haven't thought about the function while you're making it, it will still be awkward to use. What if the bottom is too thick? What if you made the whole thing so heavy that it's hard to lift when it's full? What if that handle you think looks super pretty doesn't fit your fingers the way you generally hold a mug, or it's placed at a height that makes it unbalanced when you drink from it?
3. Beyond questions of form/function, which two should go together, what do you want it to say, if anything? Do you have an idea behind it? (Obviously, it's okay if you don't; a lot of my mom's ideas look like "just playing!! :D" Some are weirder and more hilarious than others, hence the ~3-week spate of making glasses-holders that look like noses, realistic or otherwise. It's just another thing to consider.)
4. Relatedly, if you see something you like, don't just imitate it. Be creative and do something that makes it more you. (This one's a personal opinion of hers again, though it happens to be one I agree with.)
5. Biggest one for last, I guess: there are no such things as mistakes, only consequences. The issue isn't that your pot came out wobbly when you didn't want/mean it to. Like the rest of life, the real issue is why it happened. Maybe you were unsteady or distracted when you threw, or talking to someone and not paying attention. Why did your vase crack in the kiln? Maybe because the weight of the top was uneven, or you pulled the wall in that one spot too thin, etc. The question is, what are you going to do with your "mistake"? You have the option of chucking it, or if it's not fired, smushing it down to redo. You can try to fix it. Or, you can take a look at what it is now and use it as a starting place to do something new and different (my mom's favored choice, lol). Whichever you pick, you've hopefully learned something!
no subject
Date: 2015-12-13 02:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-12-17 07:20 pm (UTC)