POTTERY AS A METAPHOR?

When you make things with clay sometimes it happens you don’t manage to translate your idea into the material. The name for this? – a failure? a problem? The causes reside in reality: resistance of material, insufficient mastery of technique.  When that happens it’s possible to give up your idea or adjust it to demands-limitations of reality. It’s also possible to persevere, try again and again, even when it seems – and even if it’s confirmed to be impossible, and that, in some cases, brings an unexpected success; probably because the skill has grown trough persistent trying, and the idea has imperceptibly adjusted itself. It’s also possible to put the idea aside for a while, wait for more auspicious moment, look for more appropriate material (maybe another sort of glaze? maybe a clay with smaller grog granules?), look for advice of those who know more that you do. You may develop your skill on something simpler, you may lose your faith in yourself and the enjoyment in your practise, you may draw negative conclusions about what’s possible and what’s not in this world… But it’s also possible to push the idea as such a bit towards background and bring in the foreground the material and the hand.

Well, it’s all a bit different when it comes to interpersonal relationships.