Pottery and Podcasts: Tips and Tricks for Getting Started
Adopting the wabi-sabi perspective, the right tools and experience ‘boosters’ can help you get into the groove with your new hobby
Making things, while listening to music or podcasts, is where I’m in my happy place. I’ve recently gotten into pottery, which is overall a low stimulation activity, and so is great for relaxation. Paired with something to listen to, however, it’s easy to stay stimulated enough to get into flow and keep creating.
For those of us who work in tech and spend the bulk of our waking hours in front of screens, there is something very healing about this process, which is essentially taking dirt from the ground, molding it with our hands and turning it into art.
A few years back, I had the ambitious (in hindsight, mad) idea that I was going to take a photo with my DSLR daily for the rest of my life and record it on a Tumblr blog that would act as a diary, triggering and strengthening my memories.
I managed to keep it up for a year, which all in all was decent going. Over that year, I noticed quite a big improvement in the quality of my photos.
I liked the idea of doing something similar with pottery, so I started a blog over on Tumblr.
Part of the appeal of sticking with Tumblr for me was that I wanted this to be very much an Austin Kleon ‘show your work’ style of blog, partly because this philosophy makes a lot of sense to me and I appreciate it when other creators show their work, and partly just because other platforms like Instagram are designed for sharing refined content that triggers a dopamine hit in a fraction of a second, not messy half-finished stuff, which is often more informative if you want to learn.
But Tumblr seems to have become a wasteland since I last used it, so I’m trying things out here.
I’m aiming to start a series wherein I’ll show: What I made today in all its imperfect glory, the tools I used, and what I was listening to. If it’s a podcast, I’ll also rate the episode for you. All of my pottery materials are from The Pottery Supply House.
What I made
I made two red clay planters this evening. I have been making pottery at home for about half a year, and there are still a lot of imperfections in my work, particularly when you see it at this stage before they have been glazed.
Starting pottery with the expectation that you will be able to make pieces as polished-looking as what you see at Ikea is a good way to hit a frustration wall early on and never take out your clay again. Keep in mind that Ikea crockery is mass-produced and nothing special, which is why you can buy a cup for $2.99.
Western culture has traditionally favoured perfection, and computer culture has exacerbated this. It’s very easy for computers to make things perfect, and so by working with computers a lot, if our outputs don’t match our intentions precisely, it’s all the more obvious and painful for us (if you’re a developer used to bug-fixing, I imagine you’re less prone to this effect).
Japanese culture, however, celebrates the beauty of transience and imperfection, which they refer to as wabi-sabi. The expression comes from the Zen Buddhist philosophy, specifically from the Three Marks of Existence (or sanbōin) teaching that all things have “impermanence” (mujō), “suffering” or damage (ku), and “non-self” (kū). Items exhibiting these qualities are seen as more beautiful, as they are a more true illustration of the nature of life.
Wabi-sabi pottery is best exemplified with Kintsugi work, where broken pottery is restored by filling cracks with gold, highlighting and celebrating, rather than hiding, the damage. These pieces are far more charming than anything you’d find at Ikea.
The tools I used
This is all you need for slab pottery. As you can see, you don’t even need a rolling pin, just grab a trusty bottle of your preferred dressing or alcoholic beverage and you’re away.
The pattern rollers I bought only this week, but if you’re starting out, I recommend you include them in your first materials purchase. They require no experience or skill to use, and they are very rewarding, giving your pieces a professional look in seconds. It’s like the adult version of the thrill we got from using stamps as kids.
That orange thing is called a rib, and it’s another one I suggest buying at the outset. After you roll your rectangular clay slab out with your vinegar bottle, you can use the rib to make the surface really smooth before you roll on the pattern and then attach the ends together with slip. This also has a very satisfying quality to it, a bit like the feeling you get from ironing out kinks in aluminum foil.
By heightening the most satisfying parts of the making experience, we will be more likely to be motivated to come back to our new hobby and start to develop a habit. Only when we develop a habit and regularly integrate the creation progress into our lives can we expect to make real progress.
What I was listening to
The Parent, The Adult and The Child — A discussion of Transactional Analysis
4 stars
Life Positions & Games: Transactional Analysis
4 stars
From Not Overthinking, a weekly podcast about happiness, creativity, and the human condition, by Ali and Taimur Abdaal
Ali and Taimur are Cambridge/Oxford grad brothers. Ali is a doctor and productivity YouTuber, Taimur a data scientist/entrepreneur and writer. They make great content in their respective fields, but my favourite thing is this podcast they do together. Overall they get along well but their personality differences mean there are many things they don’t see eye to eye on, which often results in a lot of playful ribbing. The topics that they are discussing are always interesting, but their relationship adds a second narrative which is very enjoyable.
When I was listening to Radio New Zealand growing up, I remember how exciting it was to hear journalists like Kim Hill rip into politicians and CEOs with hard-hitting questions and listen to them splutter in response. Sadly there is far less of a space left for that kind of journalism now, and while Taimur scoffing merrily at Ali before he can finish his sentence is not quite the same thing, it’s something.
Hearing two equally intelligent brothers argue and often somehow both be right reminds us that there frequently isn’t a single black and white truth, and our differences are what makes life interesting. If you can’t see the humour in that, you’re missing the forest for the trees.
