I Can Do Hard Things

I graduated High School in 2002.  My ten year anniversary is this year.  Good. I can finally feel like I'm not a baby that doesn't know anything.  I think one of the most grown up phrases I can remember hearing as a wee child was "Oh my!  I cannot BELIEVE it is time for my High School Reunion!"  So, now I can throw around my weight and exclaim over my decade of experience since I left that God Awful Place.

So, did your class have a graduation song?  Mine did. Well, I think they wrote one just for me and Callie and Lacey and Emily because it came out right when we were graduating.  So duh, it was for us.  Sure, it says class of 99, but it came out in 2002 in Albany, GA.

One piece of advice from this video that has always stuck with me was the part that says "Do one thing that scares you every day." As an 18 year old, it liberated me, letting me know that you SHOULD do scary things and not just side step them.  And it makes you realize how many things you are actually scared of.

Making that call that could seal the business deal.  Or break it.  Stating your mind at a meeting.  Telling someone they hurt you.  Telling someone you love them.  Giving your heart to a child.

Literally a million things scare us that don't even register in our minds- we just don't do them because we've blocked them out of our realm of being.

Jonathan's cousin's husband was recently telling me about a book he is reading called Consciousness Explained.  In one part he tells me it says that based on our early experiences, our minds set up what we believe to be real and true.  And, if something outside of those parameters happens, our brain literally rejects that input.  It cannot process it since it doesn't believe it is legitimate.  So, whatever happened, is simply non-registering information.  It also goes on to say that this is also how our brain translates information.  It translates it into material that fits our belief system, in our own belief boundaries.  No wonder two people can see the same thing and have such different impressions.

I think all this relates to our fears. If we fear something, our brain provides a solution so we don't have to go near it.  That has always been my problem solving mechanism.  If I'm scared of walking my dog a night, I walk her before it gets dark.  If I'm scared of a scary movie, I watch a funny movie.  All this is well and good until you apply this method to things that keep us locked up, trapped in a pattern and at bay from good things that await.

Quick side story and I will get to the point.... when I started my hospital job, guess what I was scared of.  Of all things from dead people to CEOs to assignments falling flat on their face to loosing my job... no, none of those were scary (the dead people were always covered up anyway).  

I was scared of the cafeteria.  I wouldn't step foot in it.  I went a freaking YEAR before I purchased lunch in the cafeteria.  I didn't know what I had to weigh and what I could put in a bowl or what line I had to wait in.  I was so afraid I would show up at the register, screw up the protocol, and they wouldn't be able to ring up my lunch. It was ridiculous.  I ate Blimpie's 90% of the time that year.  It was right next to the cafeteria.  Like 5 feet away.  But I just couldn't go those five extra feet for a whole new slew of meal options.  So please people, friend your new co-workers.  They might just be going hungry.

Anyway...

So, I realized while I was reading Pottery Making Illustrated this weekend, that I'm in a similar situation with avoidance/fear/running away.  It's nothing huge, but when I consider all the things I don't know and am not experienced in that I tend to avoid, the sum of those things is huge.

I make my handles one way for everything.  I make a large tapered piece of clay, and slowly stretch out a handle, cut it free, lay it on the table, and then make more.  This is probably one of the most common professional methods of creating handles.  Sure, you can roll them or extrude them, but the pulled handle is the highest breed so that is the technique I use 96% of the time.

However, there is a method where you can attach clay to your pot, and pull a handle directly off the piece.  It creates a really organic, natural handle with a neat look and feel.  The formation technique is the same, but the attachment step and look are different.

I was introduced to this style of handles in college.  Our professor showed us and none of us could do it.  Every time I tried, I just pulled the handle right off the side.  So, after a handful of failed attempts, I quit.  

That was six years ago.  

In six years I have never revisited it.  But, I have admired and drooled over potters that do utilize this technique and put them on a pedestal of amazingness for accomplishing this feat. But, with my mind knowing I had tried this in my youth and failed, it just rejected that technique as an option for me, leaving me with this belief that I can't do it.

So, the article I ran across detailed the steps in pulling a handle off the side of a mug.  I read through diligently and decided it was time to do this.  Or at least try.  Why not?  Seriously, what do I have to loose?  A little time?  A little clay?  So, here is my step by step experience with facing my fears and trying a new scary technique.

Pulling handles off a pot:

Start with a tapered piece of clay rolled into a cone-like formation.  Mine tended to be on the large side so I was surprised at how little clay I actually needed.

Score and slip your leather hard pot where you want your handle to attach.  You can hold your tapered piece of clay (or the skeleton) up to the pot if you like to get a better idea of where you want it to attach.

Score your skeleton and then press it firmly against your top scored and slipped section of your piece. Using your index finger, gently but firmly press the clay into the pot.  Go ahead and smooth in any escaping slip and really ensure you have a good bond to your piece.  

If it looks funny- good!  Mine look like ridiculous noses or beaks.  Maybe because I used too much clay and didn't do any pre-pulling.  Which you can do if you like.

Once you are good and attached, you hold your mug, pitcher, etc. in your left hand and pull with your right.  Pull all the way from the top to the bottom, keeping it tapered.  The first few pulls will feel very rough- like nothing is happening.  Give it a minute and the clay will eventually just let go of it's ugly form and fall right into the pulling process.  It's amazing.

(This is where my handle would always fall off in college.  I think the consistency of your pot and the care you take with scoring and slipping make the difference here. I had no incidents here with my handing pulling off the pot this go around.)

Keep pulling...  Now is when you decided if you want it flatter with narrowed edges or more rounded.  You can square it off, add some interest to the top.  Whatever you like.  

And once it is pulled, attach it to the bottom scored and slipped area, pinch off the excess, and decorate.

Yay!

I was amazed at how easy it actually was after so many years of believing I wasn't good enough to do this. Sure, they aren't perfect and I fretted over them a bit more than my usual handles but overall, I was liberated by the fact that I can do hard things (credit due to www.Momastary.com).  I can do things outside of my realm of experiences. And I'm not scared of these anymore.    It's actually really exciting to have a new technique in my pocket.

So, go forth into the world.  Do something scary.  And you will win in the end.

Love, 

Lisa