Months of activity, now finally a post

I was just almost embarassed to realize how long it's been since I've posted to my blog (not for Rachel's lack of trying to motivate me). 

It's been a big few months.  I finished my degree (yay!) in December, and it was awarded in January.  Although I went to my graduation as an undergrad, I've never actually seen my BA degree.  I was always afraid to pick it up and lose it between moves, given my transient lifestyle moving around to new addresses in Boston every 9-12 months.  It felt safer to leave it in the coffers of the university, to be picked up at a later state when I was at a more stable place in life.  Needless to say, I was ecstatic when BU actually mailed my pretty, printed degree to me.  I opened it, texted my friends and family, then promptly did with it what every good student does with their school-related successes:  I hung it on the refrigerator! 

In a fit of  'need to get fit' I also attempted a boot camp class in October.  It's one of those intense, intimate instructor-to-student ratio, kick-your-butt classes that mix cardio, strength training and core workouts three mornings a week to 'start your day off right'.  I accomplished losing some sleep, sweating a lot...and injuring my right wrist.  I assumed all would be good after a few days of rest and ignored it.  Finally, when I could no longer shampoo my hair with my dominant hand nor lift a jar of pickles from the kitchen cabinet, I went to my doctor then to a hand surgeon.  I was told to ingest large volumes of Advil (R) and wear the most uncomfortable wrist brace ever.  I was also given a prescription for physical therapy, which having never done, I quickly dismissed as overly time-consuming and a nice idea, but hardly effective.

I spent the holidays in Boston for the first time ever, and used my short work weeks at the end of the year to catch up on rest...and do not much else.  This last few months I've been very work-centric, but after a few months of hiatus I also re-enrolled in pottery class.  I'm taking a class called, "Bowls, bowls, bowls."  I'll bet you can't guess what we're all working on...

My first night back at the studio I picked up my first 25lbs of clay...and realized why I should have 'dealt with' that wrist of mine.  Although I'd grown quite comfortable washing my hair and doing a myriad other things with my left hand, I couldn't do everything with it, and carrying clay weight HURT.  Once I threw a chunk of clay down on the wheel, I realized that everything about throwing even the smallest lumps of clay also hurt.  The first step in throwing is to center the clay on the wheel.  That usually means spinning it around and applying a greater amount of force towards the clay as centrifugal force from it is applying away from the center of the wheel...with the heel of your dominant hand.  So much for my goal to get back into making big platters and bowls!

Shortly after that first class, I scrounged through my 'important papers' pile to find that physical therapy prescription and decided to give it a whirl.  I went for my first consultation at Pro Sports Therapy and ended up with this snappy, new accessory:

I was advised to 'listen to my wrist' and avoid anything too strenuous or unnecessarily pressure-intensive.  When asked for clarification they did, in fact, advise against throwing clay.  Determined not to let mere physical injury interrupt my hobby, I decided during "overnight clay" in February that I needed to learn how to throw with my left hand.  At 3:00am, amped up on coffee (and a bit of margarita), I decided to take every impulse I had to throw and reverse it to try doing it with my other hand. 
This was the result.


 So...it's not quite round.  It resembles a bowl, it was made from more than 2 lbs. of clay, and I did the 'work' with my left hand (finger-L for dramatic effect and memory facilitation).  That bowl took me about 30-45 minutes to throw.  The pure amount of water necessary to keep my hands from drying out was probably a big factor in why it got so off-kilter and collapsed.  Skills regression aside, though, it proved to me that it would be possible to 'start over' learning to throw and get to a point where I could be proficient with that left hand.  I left the studio the next morning with renewed dedication. 

Within the next few weeks I decided to drop the pottery class and spend the money, instead, on private lessons with one of the instructors and studio potters who is left-handed.  I needed some focused attention in order to re-learn how to do everything.  Instead, the staff suggested that I stick it out with Cary and let him show me how he'd worked through a (dominant) right wrist injury in the past.  I acquiesced.  I've been pleasantly surprised and am very glad to have given it a shot.  Cary has dedicated time to specifically show me how to do his demos "the other way around" and I've happily been able to make some things that are respectable, at least. 

Here's looking forward to an exciting rest-of-semester of healing and left-handed prowess.  More updates to come!

The pottery-meditation/religion connection

I started this blog for a compulsory assignment as part of an E-commerce class.  I started the class in March, then dropped it.  As you can tell from the post archive over on the right, the new semester started again in September.  I just got my grade (A!), and some comments from the evaluator.  He said, "To some practitioners, doing pottery is a form of Zen meditation: yourself, the mind, the hands with the spinning mud, an eventually achieving inner peace."  I can completely understand that. 

I've never tried meditation.  I know many people consider prayer to be a form of it, but although I was raised in a Christian religion, my 'practice' of prayer was more imitation than practice...just enough to placate my parents.  (Alas, and one wonders why my devotion didn't continue past the teenage years.) 

There have been times, at the end of a long day and mighty traffic competition to get back into the city, where I've sat at a wheel content to just feel the clay circle 'round between my fingers.  I can just let my mind wander (or shut down) and feel myself relax.  It's clay-therapy, and one of the things I'm missing about not doing pottery this semester.  [Tangent:  If I could consider wheel-throwing as a form of mental centering, then a wheel should be considered medical equipment and therefore tax-deductible.  I'll send a note to the IRS and see if they agree.]

Pottery is certainly an 'ancient' art...generations have been doing it for centuries.  Initially functional, I would posit, ultimately the skill of making vessels and tools for practical purposes let itself to the practice of making items for entertainment, worship, etc.  Even my Christian education didn't imprint me with memory that pottery was mentioned in the Bible, though.  Turns out it is...

According to Don Friesen, The formative power of faith became vivid for Jeremiah one day on a visit to a potter's house. There he saw the potter working at his wheel, and as the potter worked his wheel Jeremiah recalls,"The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me:  ‘Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? ... Just like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.'"— (Jeremiah 18:4-6)

Another site discussing Chakra meditation says, "Imagine throwing a wet ball of clay onto the center of the spinning wheel and then with your hand around the moist clay, thumb on top, find the center of the clay and slowly push it to the center of the wheel, breathing deeply from your abdomen as the wheel spins with the clay centered perfectly."

As part of this (rare) 24 hours of religious awareness, there was a lot of press in the news yesterday about how US practicing members of various religions, atheists and agnostics fared on a quiz about religion.  I had heard about it, but not seen the actual quiz until Rachel sent it to me today.  The average for atheists and agnostics (my 'peeps) was 20.9 correct out of 32:  a dismal score, but better than the rest of the population...depressing.  I took it and got 28/32.  The competitive side of me was disappointed that I'd gotten 4 wrong, but I did find it ironic that one of my errors was regarding the religion I was raised with.  (Sorry, Mom.)

I am more convinced than ever that pottery will need to be a longer-term comonent of my life, if not for anything else than my 'centeredness' as a human being.  What a way to pick a hobby!