Pottery 101 Class 2 of 6

We launched into our second evening of throwing pottery.  With three other students arriving before us, and occupying three of the five wheels, our instructor wisely steered us in another direction.  A direction a few of us weren't overly keen on. Perhaps, maybe, with a little more fore-thought, this new activity would have been more desirable.  Maybe.  But really, we were there to learn all the facets of pottery, more or less.  So we settled in to see what we could create.

                                                                            

About this time, Carrie and I had had our fill of slab building, and so we moved towards the wheels.  We only had about 45 minutes left of our evening, so we kind of needed to produce a pot on the first throw.

We learn again the cone, the tuna can, and how to pull the pot.

At some point in the evening, Brianna wanted to see her pot that she had made on our first night.  Her intentions were to put a handle on and transform the pot into a mug.  But alas! The pot was to dry.  It had been a full month since we were there last, and the clay had dried beyond that point of being able to alter it.  As I sat at my wheel, with wet clay between my hands, I began thinking.  First, I thought how much more enjoyable throwing a pot was this time around.  I knew just a little more then I knew the first time. And I understood how not to lay my hand upon the wheel, as it was spinning, to wear away flesh.  Such wisdom!  I also began thinking of clay in the Potter's hand.  I thought of Brianna's pot.  I thought of a heart that would turn cold and hard and dry.  How could the Potter mold and shape it, or change and alter it, if it was hard?  Isaiah 64:8 says, "But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all the work of thy hand."  You can't be the work of the Lord's hand if you're dry.  If you're hard.  I felt the moist soft clay again in my hands.  This should be our hearts. Moldable.  Everyday we should lay ourselves on the Potter's wheel, and let His skilled hands shape and change us.  Then we can become who and what He wants us to be.  I love how the Lord gives us simple everyday circumstances to understand Him and His ways.  And so as I sat, with the wheel spinning, I created this.  And I was quite pleased.