Clay wisdom

Margaret Wu has been throwing pottery for forty-three years, and within five minutes of watching me struggle with my first real bowl attempt, she quietly moved her chair next to mine and started narrating what my hands were doing wrong. Not in a pushy way – just these gentle observations about pressure and patience that somehow made everything click.

Clay wisdom

Three weeks into Tuesday evening classes and I’m finally making pieces that don’t look like abstract art accidents. Margaret keeps saying I have ‘teaching hands’ – apparently the way I naturally break down problems when I’m learning translates well to showing others. She’s been hinting that the studio needs more assistants for beginner workshops.

Three weeks of Tuesday classes = actual functional pottery

The funny thing is how much this reminds me of those first heritage cooking sessions with Abuela Rosa. Same patient repetition, same focus on feeling rather than thinking your way through a technique. Different medium, same underlying truth about learning from someone who’s mastered their craft through decades of practice.