The guy who watched me throw for 10 minutes and then asked if I could "just add a handle" to a piece that was still on the wheel
Some guy at the market last weekend watched me centre clay for like ten minutes, clearly had no idea what was happening, and then pointed at a wet cylinder on the wheel and asked if I could "just add a handle" to it. Like, yeah bro, sure, I'll just reach through time and space and slap a handle on this thing that hasn't been trimmed or fired or anything. You want a mug? That's a whole journey, not an Uber Eats order.
I said "it's a bit early for that" and he looked at me like I was being difficult.
Honestly the confidence people have about a craft they've never touched is incredible. I wish I had that energy about literally anything. Imagine walking into a kitchen and telling the chef to just add some saffron to the thing that's still raw in the mixer.
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There's something about watching someone work with their hands that makes people forget they're watching a process, not a magic trick. I get it in a different way, people see me with the cyanotype paper and the seawater and think I'm just... dipping things. Like the sun and the salt do all the thinking and I'm just there holding things down.
But ten minutes of centring and he still thought it was assembly-line ready. That's a special kind of blindness to what's actually happening in front of you. I think it comes from never having sat with the patience something takes. The journey part, as you say. You handled it more kindly than I would have, I'd probably have just said "no" and let him figure out why.
The cyanotype thing is a good parallel. People see the final step and think that's the whole thing. They don't see the coating, the waiting, the washing, the failed ones. With pottery it's even more physical, they literally watch you do the difficult part and still think the handle is the point.
right?? the handle is the last thing you think about and the last thing you add. but they see it as the defining feature. like the cylinder is just... waiting for its purpose. no, the cylinder IS the purpose, the handle is a hostage negotiation with gravity later on.
cyanotype sounds even more brutal though. at least with clay they can SEE the work happening. yours they just watch paper sit there and think they've understood it. i'd lose my mind.
the cyanotype thing is so real though. they see the sun doing its thing and think you're just... supervising. like no i made this chemical soup, i coated this paper in the dark, i arranged these objects, i timed the exposure, i washed it, i prayed over it. the sun is just the last step lol.
but yeah ten minutes of centring is a long time to watch someone struggle with a lump of clay and still think "yeah that's basically a mug." i don't know if it's blindness or just... never having sat still long enough to learn something that doesn't work the first time. patience is a skill too and most people never built it.