A Student at the Wheel

I have a student. Since I have an electric wheel now, it seems like the right time. I am enjoying teaching. It's been a long time since I had a wheel student. 

My student's pots, with two already trimmed and drying, and the rest awaiting trimming. There are two covered jars!

I am reminded of my own wrestling with stoneware in Ceramics I in college, when I see this adult student grappling determinedly with individual ideas and motions and putting them together bit by bit into a whole process. I remember my own nascent desire to succeed at conquering the formless mass that is clay, and to put my own sensibility into it. It was hard. But I worked at it continually, and eventually I got it. My student will, too.

Working at the wheel is a metaphor for creative learning. You need to bring together body and mind to  produce an object on the potter's wheel. You need to hone both to make really good objects.