“….it missed
by this much”, he said. And to emphasize just how tiny and
insignificant “this much” was, he thrust out his hand, holding his finger and
thumb a scant quarter-inch apart.
Yeah, what of
significance could possibly fit between fingers so closely spaced?
More than
100,000 pots.
Knowing the
distance between two fingers – and how to set and hold them there –is perhaps
the central skill to being a potter. It’s
not a “squeeze”. It’s a
set-and-hold. And learning the feel of
that distance and being capable of holding it -- whether thumbs may touch over
a short wall for reference….or the fingers are completely separated and working
on either side of a very tall wall that reaches to the elbow and beyond – that’s
what a potter needs to learn to make a good, even-walled pot. It’s what a potter needs to know to make a
pot light enough for function, but heavy enough for a lifetime of use and
abuse.
When that
skill became second nature to me, I found that my mind would venture off from
that starting point – that focus on two fingers – to beyond. What starts with a slam of clay on wheelhead
and a whirring motor, a few seconds worth of slip-slap-center …. fingers assuming their positions in that
set-and-hold, soon (and inevitably) leads to my focus slipping right between those fingers
along with the clay…and wandering off.
Some of my
most creative moments happen while I’m at my wheel, my fingers set on spinning
clay. With what has become an automatic
focus on my fingers, my imagination is freed.
Now not only do I create the pot presently on the wheel….I contemplate
the next, and the next. I imagine new
ideas, new pots. My imagination becomes
as malleable as the clay I’m forming. I
write essays and poetry (yes, at some point I have to wipe slip from my hands
and type those thoughts out). I dream my
best, most fruitful dreams with my fingers set “this much” apart.
Yeah, what
of significance could possibly fit between fingers so closely spaced?
This potter’s
life.