Yes, actually. I rarely finish a throwing session (the wet part of making pots) without being covered in muddy clay.
And are the pots messes? Well, yes. There are standard steps in making pots, and I have to add two: sanding sloppy bits of dried clay off my dry pots before firing them, and then washing off the sanding dust before glazing. That's because I forget to wash my hands clean as I trim my pottery.
Why do I make messes? Is it necessary to make messes in the process of making pottery? It is not a neat process. We start with wet clay, wet it more and shape an amorphous material into a chosen form. As the clay spins on the wheel, it must slide freely between the potter's hands, so it has to be wet. Potting is playing in the mud, no doubt. Still, there are potters much neater than I am.
Some of it is simply a fit for personality. I like the material, in its malleability, its openness to become anything, to express the movement of hands. I rarely appreciate precision. Once I laughed when an interior design teacher complimented a student by saying she is detail-oriented. It hadn't occurred to me that might be a good thing.
Precisely shaped and finished pots can be wonderful, like Ellen Fager's
or Merle Lambeth's.
I do like neatly finished pots, but would rather make loose forms that look grown, like this,
rather than constructed. I keep making leaf plates and want them to seem as though they just fell from the tree.
Messes with good outcomes sound just right.
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