15 Reasons Why… You’re a Terrible Potter!

If you’re doing ceramics, you’ve probably met a bunch of gatekeepers lurking in community studios with very clear ideas about what you should and shouldn’t do to be a “real” potter .  A sample of things I’ve heard since I’ve been doing ceramics (and even believed some of them!)

You’re not a real potter if…

              1) You’re not digging your own clay.

              2) You’re not making your own glazes.

             3) You’re handbuilding (as opposed to wheelthrowing. Handbuilding is so hard!  Never could figure that one out!)

              4) You’re using decals to decorate your pieces and not painting your designs from scratch. (Somehow using commercial rubber stamps for texture is fine, although I’m sure it’s a sin for some.)

              5) You’re sanding your pieces after they’re bisqued (yes, someone told me this, even though professional potters do sand their pieces to smooth them out so they don’t scratch tables and such.)

              6) You’re slip casting (no matter than slip casters can take months to make one mold… And yes, some people use slip casting to make the same piece over and over, but it’s just a tool, and it’s all about how you use it.)

              7) You’re using a 3D printer (I *might* have thought that once.  Again, it’s just a tool and like all tools, it’s how you use it that matters.)

             8) You’re not firing at cone 10 (variations: not using a gas kiln/ not wood firing / not having a raku kiln in your backyard that you welded together from old garbage cans)

            9) You can’t center your pieces by tapping on them before trimming (I’ve never been able to do this!)

            10) Your pieces are not perfectly symmetrical (and not thin enough, they should break by just looking at them!)

             11) You cannot center blindfolded or backwards (or with your hands tied up behind your back?)

            12) You’re copying other people’s work (how do you not copy a bowl?)

            13)   You’re using a programmable kiln and not a manual kiln.

             14) You’re using an electric wheel and not a kick wheel.

15) You’re doing production pottery, not art.

           Here’s the truth: Are your hands dirty with clay?

  Then, you’re a real potter.

Note: the cover illustration is one of my old mugs with a glaze that turned out so ugly it’s hard to look at. It’s normal to be terrible at ceramics. at least for a while. Keep doing it and you’ll get better.