A potter shares what they learned making 20 bowls over a month: forcing clay into a perfect shape breaks it, but letting the material flow naturally works better. Their teacher confirmed that embracing imperfections is where the beauty lives.
I learned the hard truth about perfectionism. A month ago, I joined a ceramic studio where I threw bowls and plates. In the beginning, I kept forcing the clay to look a certain way until it would break apart under my hands and collapse. I realized that the more you go with the flow, the better the outcome. I made around 20 pieces, and once I got a hang of it, I started gaining more confidence in building things by hand. There's something so magical about bringing clay and other things to life. Like cooking. Now I'm at home making homemade strawberry jam and adding it to matcha using the bowls I threw in the studio. The lesson here is simple: not everything will be your definition of perfect. Sometimes your bowl collapses or goes sideways, but there's something so beautiful about that. As my ceramic teacher would say, there's a human touch to your creation.
