#30 Reflections: Clay Making and Starting Before You Are Ready

Yesterday I went to a clay making session. Originally I though it was the type where you make pots using those cool rotating thing but it turned out to be the one where you mould the clay with your hands. It was a two session class where in the first session we make the clay pot in whatever design we wanted to and the second session we would paint and gloss it to get the final result.

I went into the session with no preparation. It was meant to be a weekend activity that my flatmate had arranged and I was looking forward to just trying something new.

We sat down on our table and the lady took us through the process. She showed us different types of designs other people had done previously and then told us to think of what we wanted to do while she went to get the materials.

Immediately my mind went on overdrive. What design should I make? What could I use this bowl for? Shall I go for a cherry blossom theme or starry nights theme?

As usual, as it has been my whole life, I wasn’t able to think of anything even while my friend had her whole plan set. I was clueless even after the lady had come back with my clay. For a few seconds, I was transported back to high school when we were told to make a poster within the lesson for the class display. My perfectionistic side immediately came alive and before I knew it, 2 hours would pass by and I’d maybe have a light sketch on my sheet, if that.

But when I remembered that, it brought me back to reality. It reminded me how far I’d come in terms of shedding off my perfectionistic self. Since then I’d grown a lot. I’d learnt the importance of ‘doing’ over ‘planning’. The importance of starting before you were ready.

So I grabbed a bit of clay and just started. I rolled out a piece and set it out as my base. I then looked at the big chunk that was left and the word ‘swirls’ came to mind. I grabbed that thought and went with it. To add some innovativeness I’d do different sized swirls. And that was it. That was what I began with.

While I was making my swirls, making small balls of similar sizes, rolling them out and swirling them around, we were bouncing off ideas about what we could use these bowls for. Maybe for jewelery, maybe keys. Maybe you could use it as your biscuit bowl for your teatime, my friend said.

I liked that idea.

Then I glance down at my half made bowl again, a flat base with swirls all around and it hit me. Swirls…cinnoman buns. That’s it, that’s my theme. A cinnaman buns bowl.

And there it was, suddenly the road ahead to making this clay pot didn’t seem as dark as before.

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I can’t believe I’m talking about life lessons I learnt from a clay making class but I guess thats the power of always being in learning mode.

Start before you are ready

Once again I was reminded of the power of starting before you are ready. Even if I spent longer thinking of a better idea, the fact is that I would never find an idea I was going to absolutely love. On top of that, I’d just wasted a lot of time. And I might have never got a chance to finish making the bowl, just like the posters in high school.

Although throwing yourself into something before you feel ready seems like a recipe for a disaster, it’s usually the opposite. Because when you start before you are ready, you begin learning while you are doing and you soon become ready…while doing.

Open to inspiration

Another thing I was reminded was to keep my heart open in all experiences. You have no idea where you can get your next crazy idea from. My idea for a cinnamon bun bowl came from a casual conversation about uses for our bowls. Nearly all my reflections on this blog come from random things I come across in my day.

The more you stay open to learn from all experiences, the more likely you’ll hit that jackpot idea.