A miracle.
I love making pottery because clay is so responsive. It simultaneously requires my full attention and being loose. When forming a shape, the more I try to force it to do something, the worse it goes. During this time, I started using grolleg porcelain because it’s so challenging and so delicious to throw. I made whatever I felt like making in the moment. That’s the only theme.
Then at every step to the finished piece — drying, bisque firing, waxing, glazing, cleaning up and firing — there are variables out of my control that sometimes dramatically affect it. Grolleg likes to warp and slump. And the shapes I like don’t help with extra support, like lips on edges. So few pieces end up round.
Once in a while, a piece works its way into my everyday life. When I sit and consider it, the whole universe is in that cup. It blows my mind to think of everything that a conspired to get perfect coffee into this vessel that I made — I love this and hope you have some of these moments, too.
I have focused only on the making, but the use of them is the ideal outcome of the process.
