Pottery Talk
Note: I'm including more details here than many of you will be interested in. I justify it for the sake of people out there who may have responsibility for planning similar events and who might benefit from ideas that others have used. This event was planned by Judith N., Marian Y., Carla M., and Rosene Y.--typical of the four-person committee selected by the previous year's committee of women.
As always, use the buttons in front of you to get past the parts you want to skip.
****************************
Last night I attended our church's annual women's prayer partners banquet. More than 100 people attended, including a number of guests.
Something about an event like this is very satisfying. Eating a meal planned and prepared by others, in a beautifully decorated environment, over good conversation among friends, listening to pleasing inspirational singing and writings. . . .It's the stuff of a weary woman's dreams.
This year's theme was "Vessels Unto Honor," a Scripture phrase that uses the imagery of pottery.
A sextet sang three songs: "Channels Only," "I Will Serve Thee," and "We Are an Offering." The whole group sang "Have Thine Own Way" after we heard the story of how Adelaide Pollard wrote the words while dealing with a major disappointment when she came up short on funds for a mission undertaking she was committed to. Readings included one called "The Vessel" by an unknown author, a poem by Roy Lessin, and "The Potter's Hand" by M. F. Clarkson (not my beloved Margaret Clarkson, as I first thought when I saw the initials) . I gave a speech with the same title as the theme.
I entered by the back stairs because I had things to tote downstairs in preparation for my talk. Then I entered again, properly, through the double doors, and followed a path of tea lights shining from inside quart canning jars, the jars threaded along displays of pottery--on tables and other rustic or simple objects, among quilts, paintings, books, and greenery, etc., some pottery filled with flowers (from my frantic pre-freeze harvest). Interspersed on small easel-type stands were also calligraphy-style Bible verses and other quotes related to the theme. At the end of this path was the registration table where those of us who didn't bring dessert paid our $5.00 for the evening. We stuffed our bills into a large blue pot that Joel had made in a pottery class he took several years ago at Sterling.
Downstairs each place at the tables had a small bookmarker-style card with an appropriate picture and writing related to the theme. This was intended as a memento of the evening, but I seem to have failed to pick mine up--hence the fuzzy details. Sigh.
The tables were decorated with red and white. Each table had a centerpiece made from a serving bowl, elevated on something covered by a decorative cloth napkin, filled with water and an outer ring of tea lights surrounding a large white silk mum held in place with crumpled clear plastic wrap. On either side was a red-glazed, flower-shaped candle holder containing tall white candles. Beyond the candle holders, at each end of the table was a tall red mug set inside a matching bowl. The mug contained sand, on which perched a small fat white candle. All the candles provided a nice soft light (and a good deal of heat, as became apparent as the evening progressed). Oh, white tablecloths, red napkins . . . .
One of the delightful surprises downstairs was the "bench wall." We have quite a few Amish-church-style foldable benches which have probably been in use between 50 and 100 years. They are all painted the same glossy gray. At the end of one of the long basement walls are sturdy steel racks for storing these benches. The benches can be stacked on each of three sets of black "forearm" brackets that extend out from the wall at right angles. These benches had been stacked very neatly, and the top bench of each stack sported lovely displays. Those distressed benches have never looked so good--a wonderful example of seeing opportunity in what might to less creative minds have looked like an eyesore.
Most of the girls who served us, family style, were in the junior high age category. The three cooks were ladies from a neighboring church. Joe Y. had cooked the savory chicken breasts, and Mary Ellen B. had made the crescent rolls. The cooks did the tossed salads and mashed potatoes and gravy. Some of the guests brought the desserts.
My notes for the speech were a mess. I actually have three very different outlines saved in WordPerfect documents on my computer. (Have I mentioned my tendency to be indecisive?) The final outline was neatly typed, and messily and copiously amended in hot pink ink after it was too late to re-type it.
I had found some online resources and was given an article from Discipleship Journal ("Lessons From Clay" by Wendy Lawton, Jan/Feb 2000, pp. 62-65). The article was the most helpful. I had also used a topical Bible and Bible dictionary to find the Scriptures related to the Potter/pottery imagery and learn about the making of pottery in Bible times.
My efforts to rehearse ahead of time were disastrous. Too long, too boring, too hesitant, too shallow. I had only 20 minutes to say it all, so every word had to count. A perfect situation for understanding the need for reliance on the Lord to bring it all together and hold it together during the presentation. He did it! The actual event went much better than any of the previous run-throughs. Another time of being amazed at the focusing power unleashed when I'm confronted with a sea of faces, all wearing expectant, affirming expressions. Afterward, I had a chance to pick up again, with input from individuals and in small groups, on threads that I didn't have time to develop fully, and explore aspects I hadn't touched on. That was very enjoyable.
I began by recounting my personal experiences with pottery making. It began with Hiromi and me taking a pottery-making class soon after we were married. It was taught through the Hutchinson Leisure Arts Center by a man (Mr. Z) whose pottery Hiromi had been buying, and who had taught an art education class I took in college. We learned there how to begin with a lump of prepared clay, create a vessel on a wheel, and glaze it in preparation for firing it. We also got to participate in a raku firing process. This method has Japanese origins and was of special interest to Hiromi.
About five years ago Hiromi bought a wheel and a kiln and began experimenting with using Kansas clay. We dug the clay ourselves near Hoisington, on the site of a brick-making factory. Hiromi processed it by first soaking the clay chunks in water till they dissolved and then mixing it all into a slurry that could be poured through a strainer. He poured off the water that accumulated in his mixing buckets after several days, then covered the buckets and put aside the clay for aging. Most of it is still stored in the shed here on the farm.
Hiromi is a closet artist and chemist and experimenter, so he set about trialing various clay samples and combinations, and carefully marking the fired samples with a number matching either a bucket number or a recipe notation in his notebook.
A person who makes vessels from clay handles the clay a lot before it's ready for the wheel. It must first be wedged, a mixing process that continues until the clay has a uniform texture throughout, with no hard lumps and no squishy spots remaining. It also should have no pockets of trapped air. The mixing process is more like kneading bread than stirring mush. Occasional slicing through the lump and reassembling it can be helpful too.
When the clay is thoroughly mixed, it must be centered on the wheel. That happens by placing the lump in the center as nearly as possible by eyeballing it. Then both hands are used to apply pressure to the lump as the wheel turns. Until it's properly centered, it feels as out of control as an off-balance automatic washer in the spin cycle.
After the clay is balanced, the lump is opened up by pressing the thumbs into the center and applying outward pressure as the wheel turns. Soon there's a symmetrical depression in the middle. Then the clay is pulled up to give the vessel height by loosely pinching and lifting both sides as the wheel continues to turn. When the vessel is as tall as desired, usually it's finished by forming a neck through pressure from the hands on the outside of the vessel, and then often a lip is formed by outward pressure from the inside of the vessel.
After the pot is formed it's left to dry. Bisque firing comes next, at about 2000 degrees, heating and cooling it gradually. This makes the vessel much stronger, but it will still be very porous.
Next the glaze is applied, and the vessel is fired again. It emerges from the kiln with a wonderful luster and is now impermeable to water.
I urged my listeners to ponder applications to their own lives as the process of creating a vessel comes to mind in the future--my escape from the tedium of publicly dissecting each step and matching it to a logical application, although I had done so in one of those discarded outlines.
In the second part of the talk I noted a few of the lessons I gleaned from Scripture. First, we reviewed the foundational parallels: God is the Potter, the sovereign one in control. We are the clay, in submission to the Potter. The potter's wheel is the mechanism for change.
Other points included these: Man is frail--made of dust (or earth, as clay is also. The terms have common roots.) but even frail vessels can contain great treasure. God is present and active in the circumstances of our lives, with our cooperation and consent, shaping us through circumstances in which we submit to the pressure we experience, and become better by it. The vessels God designs show a lot of variation. A "vessel unto honor" is a sanctified vessel--resulting in being suitable for the Master's use and being prepared for good works.
Someone who was there asked me for one or more of each of the following snippets of the talk. I'm taking the easy way of giving out that information by posting it here.
Scriptures:
Isaiah 64:8
Genesis 1:27, Genesis 2:7, Job 10:9
Jeremiah 18:4 (and preceding verses, along with several verses from Jer. 19)
Romans 9:20-23, Isaiah 29:16
2 Timothy 2:20, 21
Quotations:
"Circumstance is the wheel of God to bring us against the pressure of the Potter's hand."
--On vessels unto honor (with the prerequisite of sanctification) : Before a vessel can be sanctified it must be shaped; before it can be shaped, it must be yielded. Yieldedness is submission--the fundamental necessity for becoming more useful and beautiful over time, rather than more brittle and easily shattered.
--On being changed: Nothing good happens without a stance of humility.
Prayer by an Unknown Author
I am willing, Lord,
to receive what Thou givest,
to lack what Thou withholdest,
to relinquish what Thou takest,
to surrender what Thou claimest,
to suffer what Thou ordainest,
to do what Thou commandest,
to wait until Thou sayest, "Go."
***************
Bertha was my prayer partner last year. If she doesn't have the motivational gift of giving, she at least has developed it wonderfully as a learned skill. She knows that I like rooster/chicken decor and has blessed me with many right-on-target, tasteful, and useful gifts, not forgetting other things I like such as baskets and candles and snacks and drinks. I'm very grateful for her prayers on my behalf too and her practical help with providing a meal over the time of Shane's wedding.
I'm not good at" gifting" kinds of things and am awed by those who are. I can't keep track very well of important dates, and I don't plan very far in advance by having a gift in hand. It's a discipline for me to avoid self-flagellation activity when I encounter lavish generosity in others, and to accept it as the expression of love and encouragement that it's meant to be.
"I thank God upon every remembrance of you."
As always, use the buttons in front of you to get past the parts you want to skip.
****************************
Last night I attended our church's annual women's prayer partners banquet. More than 100 people attended, including a number of guests.
Something about an event like this is very satisfying. Eating a meal planned and prepared by others, in a beautifully decorated environment, over good conversation among friends, listening to pleasing inspirational singing and writings. . . .It's the stuff of a weary woman's dreams.
This year's theme was "Vessels Unto Honor," a Scripture phrase that uses the imagery of pottery.
A sextet sang three songs: "Channels Only," "I Will Serve Thee," and "We Are an Offering." The whole group sang "Have Thine Own Way" after we heard the story of how Adelaide Pollard wrote the words while dealing with a major disappointment when she came up short on funds for a mission undertaking she was committed to. Readings included one called "The Vessel" by an unknown author, a poem by Roy Lessin, and "The Potter's Hand" by M. F. Clarkson (not my beloved Margaret Clarkson, as I first thought when I saw the initials) . I gave a speech with the same title as the theme.
I entered by the back stairs because I had things to tote downstairs in preparation for my talk. Then I entered again, properly, through the double doors, and followed a path of tea lights shining from inside quart canning jars, the jars threaded along displays of pottery--on tables and other rustic or simple objects, among quilts, paintings, books, and greenery, etc., some pottery filled with flowers (from my frantic pre-freeze harvest). Interspersed on small easel-type stands were also calligraphy-style Bible verses and other quotes related to the theme. At the end of this path was the registration table where those of us who didn't bring dessert paid our $5.00 for the evening. We stuffed our bills into a large blue pot that Joel had made in a pottery class he took several years ago at Sterling.
Downstairs each place at the tables had a small bookmarker-style card with an appropriate picture and writing related to the theme. This was intended as a memento of the evening, but I seem to have failed to pick mine up--hence the fuzzy details. Sigh.
The tables were decorated with red and white. Each table had a centerpiece made from a serving bowl, elevated on something covered by a decorative cloth napkin, filled with water and an outer ring of tea lights surrounding a large white silk mum held in place with crumpled clear plastic wrap. On either side was a red-glazed, flower-shaped candle holder containing tall white candles. Beyond the candle holders, at each end of the table was a tall red mug set inside a matching bowl. The mug contained sand, on which perched a small fat white candle. All the candles provided a nice soft light (and a good deal of heat, as became apparent as the evening progressed). Oh, white tablecloths, red napkins . . . .
One of the delightful surprises downstairs was the "bench wall." We have quite a few Amish-church-style foldable benches which have probably been in use between 50 and 100 years. They are all painted the same glossy gray. At the end of one of the long basement walls are sturdy steel racks for storing these benches. The benches can be stacked on each of three sets of black "forearm" brackets that extend out from the wall at right angles. These benches had been stacked very neatly, and the top bench of each stack sported lovely displays. Those distressed benches have never looked so good--a wonderful example of seeing opportunity in what might to less creative minds have looked like an eyesore.
Most of the girls who served us, family style, were in the junior high age category. The three cooks were ladies from a neighboring church. Joe Y. had cooked the savory chicken breasts, and Mary Ellen B. had made the crescent rolls. The cooks did the tossed salads and mashed potatoes and gravy. Some of the guests brought the desserts.
My notes for the speech were a mess. I actually have three very different outlines saved in WordPerfect documents on my computer. (Have I mentioned my tendency to be indecisive?) The final outline was neatly typed, and messily and copiously amended in hot pink ink after it was too late to re-type it.
I had found some online resources and was given an article from Discipleship Journal ("Lessons From Clay" by Wendy Lawton, Jan/Feb 2000, pp. 62-65). The article was the most helpful. I had also used a topical Bible and Bible dictionary to find the Scriptures related to the Potter/pottery imagery and learn about the making of pottery in Bible times.
My efforts to rehearse ahead of time were disastrous. Too long, too boring, too hesitant, too shallow. I had only 20 minutes to say it all, so every word had to count. A perfect situation for understanding the need for reliance on the Lord to bring it all together and hold it together during the presentation. He did it! The actual event went much better than any of the previous run-throughs. Another time of being amazed at the focusing power unleashed when I'm confronted with a sea of faces, all wearing expectant, affirming expressions. Afterward, I had a chance to pick up again, with input from individuals and in small groups, on threads that I didn't have time to develop fully, and explore aspects I hadn't touched on. That was very enjoyable.
I began by recounting my personal experiences with pottery making. It began with Hiromi and me taking a pottery-making class soon after we were married. It was taught through the Hutchinson Leisure Arts Center by a man (Mr. Z) whose pottery Hiromi had been buying, and who had taught an art education class I took in college. We learned there how to begin with a lump of prepared clay, create a vessel on a wheel, and glaze it in preparation for firing it. We also got to participate in a raku firing process. This method has Japanese origins and was of special interest to Hiromi.
About five years ago Hiromi bought a wheel and a kiln and began experimenting with using Kansas clay. We dug the clay ourselves near Hoisington, on the site of a brick-making factory. Hiromi processed it by first soaking the clay chunks in water till they dissolved and then mixing it all into a slurry that could be poured through a strainer. He poured off the water that accumulated in his mixing buckets after several days, then covered the buckets and put aside the clay for aging. Most of it is still stored in the shed here on the farm.
Hiromi is a closet artist and chemist and experimenter, so he set about trialing various clay samples and combinations, and carefully marking the fired samples with a number matching either a bucket number or a recipe notation in his notebook.
A person who makes vessels from clay handles the clay a lot before it's ready for the wheel. It must first be wedged, a mixing process that continues until the clay has a uniform texture throughout, with no hard lumps and no squishy spots remaining. It also should have no pockets of trapped air. The mixing process is more like kneading bread than stirring mush. Occasional slicing through the lump and reassembling it can be helpful too.
When the clay is thoroughly mixed, it must be centered on the wheel. That happens by placing the lump in the center as nearly as possible by eyeballing it. Then both hands are used to apply pressure to the lump as the wheel turns. Until it's properly centered, it feels as out of control as an off-balance automatic washer in the spin cycle.
After the clay is balanced, the lump is opened up by pressing the thumbs into the center and applying outward pressure as the wheel turns. Soon there's a symmetrical depression in the middle. Then the clay is pulled up to give the vessel height by loosely pinching and lifting both sides as the wheel continues to turn. When the vessel is as tall as desired, usually it's finished by forming a neck through pressure from the hands on the outside of the vessel, and then often a lip is formed by outward pressure from the inside of the vessel.
After the pot is formed it's left to dry. Bisque firing comes next, at about 2000 degrees, heating and cooling it gradually. This makes the vessel much stronger, but it will still be very porous.
Next the glaze is applied, and the vessel is fired again. It emerges from the kiln with a wonderful luster and is now impermeable to water.
I urged my listeners to ponder applications to their own lives as the process of creating a vessel comes to mind in the future--my escape from the tedium of publicly dissecting each step and matching it to a logical application, although I had done so in one of those discarded outlines.
In the second part of the talk I noted a few of the lessons I gleaned from Scripture. First, we reviewed the foundational parallels: God is the Potter, the sovereign one in control. We are the clay, in submission to the Potter. The potter's wheel is the mechanism for change.
Other points included these: Man is frail--made of dust (or earth, as clay is also. The terms have common roots.) but even frail vessels can contain great treasure. God is present and active in the circumstances of our lives, with our cooperation and consent, shaping us through circumstances in which we submit to the pressure we experience, and become better by it. The vessels God designs show a lot of variation. A "vessel unto honor" is a sanctified vessel--resulting in being suitable for the Master's use and being prepared for good works.
Someone who was there asked me for one or more of each of the following snippets of the talk. I'm taking the easy way of giving out that information by posting it here.
Scriptures:
Isaiah 64:8
Genesis 1:27, Genesis 2:7, Job 10:9
Jeremiah 18:4 (and preceding verses, along with several verses from Jer. 19)
Romans 9:20-23, Isaiah 29:16
2 Timothy 2:20, 21
Quotations:
"Circumstance is the wheel of God to bring us against the pressure of the Potter's hand."
--On vessels unto honor (with the prerequisite of sanctification) : Before a vessel can be sanctified it must be shaped; before it can be shaped, it must be yielded. Yieldedness is submission--the fundamental necessity for becoming more useful and beautiful over time, rather than more brittle and easily shattered.
--On being changed: Nothing good happens without a stance of humility.
Prayer by an Unknown Author
I am willing, Lord,
to receive what Thou givest,
to lack what Thou withholdest,
to relinquish what Thou takest,
to surrender what Thou claimest,
to suffer what Thou ordainest,
to do what Thou commandest,
to wait until Thou sayest, "Go."
***************
Bertha was my prayer partner last year. If she doesn't have the motivational gift of giving, she at least has developed it wonderfully as a learned skill. She knows that I like rooster/chicken decor and has blessed me with many right-on-target, tasteful, and useful gifts, not forgetting other things I like such as baskets and candles and snacks and drinks. I'm very grateful for her prayers on my behalf too and her practical help with providing a meal over the time of Shane's wedding.
I'm not good at" gifting" kinds of things and am awed by those who are. I can't keep track very well of important dates, and I don't plan very far in advance by having a gift in hand. It's a discipline for me to avoid self-flagellation activity when I encounter lavish generosity in others, and to accept it as the expression of love and encouragement that it's meant to be.
"I thank God upon every remembrance of you."
posted by Mrs. I at
6:09 AM
1 Comments:
Thanks for the report on the evening, I would've like to be there, but this way I almost feel as though i was! =) Sounds like a wonderful time. I really like your second quotation, it's so so true.
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Anonymous, at 10/31/2008
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