thursday is pot night

And there is a simple joy and satisfaction in gettng really caked in clay despite a capacious apron!

Of course potting with one functional hand creates an interesting challenge, and just keeping numb fingers off the wheel and avoiding serious abrasions is just the start of the fun.

It looks so easy and tranquil in "Ghost" Demi & Patrick all aglow and making clay grow tall and elegant.

After the first half hour my vision is partially obscured because my glasses slip and functional or no, both hands are gloved with liquid clay up to the wrist (and sometimes higher) so to push the glasses up means getting them dirty.

Then there is the question of control. Currently my left hand is a passenger rather than an active part of my life despite my best efforts at inclusion. The human organism is adaptive, and my instincts don't agonise over the future, they have simply changed my patterns over time ( amere five weeks)to achieve the most efficient use of my resources.

So sitting trying to pull a pot when one hand is in spasm has a tendency to destroy said pot in seconds no matter how elegant a curve I had achieved mere moments before.

Last week we started work on bowls and I produced two rather wonky looking straight sided vessels, rather like truncated flower pots. Well, they were wider at the top than at the bottom, so almost bowls.

Today I managed three completed pots after eight attempts that went awry or that I cut in half to see just how uneven they were, and where I needed to adjust (if possible)my approach.

So I have three pots with gentle curves and really chunky bases that I will correct next week - now there is something to look forward to, numb fingers hovering around sharp implements held tight against whirling clay! Perhaps body armour!

I have this secret hope that if I don't give in I win and get my functions back to normal - today for the first time my speech slurred, was indistinct. Not good when you make you living with your voice! And I know the secret hope is childish but I also know that the only way to fail is not to try.

I sat at a potter's wheel today and threw three recognizable bowls with a left hand that currently is prone to spastic jerks and spasms and has little left in the way of fine motor control.

If i don't give in, I win.