There were two things I forgot to do last week: get a core workout in and book a therapy appointment. I did not expect a pottery class to be the solution to both of those things.
Just south of Whyte Avenue, you will find Studio72, tucked away amongst the warehouses and breweries in Ritchie. The shared workspace is filled with different ceramic creations made by the students and artists who come to the studio to throw some clay on the wheel.
I used to spend my days at Caffè Sole — which was located next door to the studio until they moved to City Centre. The door that led to the back work station was a mystery to me — an unknown world I did not know if I wanted to be a part of.
My best friend’s sister had been on the hunt for the perfect pottery class and when I heard her mention Studio72 it felt like fate — a very welcome throwback. I took it as a sign to enrol in their Pottery 101 workshop.
It was a Saturday morning and I had already slept through my alarms, so there was no time for coffee before heading to class. As soon as I walked in, instructor Josh Van Camp’s presence woke me up. He acted as if this wasn’t his thousandth time teaching this class, and, honestly, that is the kind of energy you want from your instructor.
Before the class started, he gave us a little pep talk — not only about what was going to transpire in the next hour and a half, but also emotionally lifting us before the possibility of failure. “As adult learners, we are so hard on ourselves,” he says. Everyone in the space was from a different background, different stage in life and each one probably possessed a different reason for being there, but we were all doing the same thing: learning a new skill.
This is one of the crafts where starting over is allowed and encouraged. Mistakes are not set in stone (not yet at least). “Clay is just mud,” Van Camp says. “It can be recycled, remade, we can start again, allow yourself to fail and not be perfect.” This man just knew how to set the right tone to get us to confidently dive into pottery.
I had seen enough videos online of people’s clay bolting out of their wheel and causing major disasters in the studios, so I was fully expecting to get whiplash from being intensely handled by my clay.
The first 30 minutes were spent observing Van Camp at his own wheel — tricking us into thinking this was an easy task. From the position, which involved fully tightening your core for the entire process, to how wet everything needed to be to how to handle your clay, he was thorough.
Someone asked what everyone else was dying to ask, “What is our final result supposed to look like?” To which he replied, “We are going to let the clay decide what to do.” Fair. None of us had the right to be picky about our end product. But he still went ahead and gave us two references to how our final result could look — both resembling cylinder pots.
Back at my station, the spinning of the wheel became less intimidating once I realized I had full control of it. I guess I should’ve expected that. I knew a pedal was involved. And how hard is it really to press a pedal?
The centring and molding of the clay to look like a mountain gave me a boost of confidence. I was high on the whole experience. Again, I was expecting the clay to fully fly off as soon as the spinning started but Van Camp taught us it is all in the wetness. That is what your big bowl of water is there for: to never let your clay know a second of dryness.
I reached the point in the class when I expected Unchained Melody to start playing.
I was in the rhythm of it, when I accidentally lost control and bent one side of it. It was going too well, something had to go wrong. I called Van Camp over and asked him to help me restart. “I actually think it is perfect, like look at the inside, the curves,” he says. At first it sounded as if he was trying to convince a child her art work did not suck but he made a point. “It has personality, it makes it more you,” he says.
I had my hopes set on creating an everyday coffee mug but I loved whatever it was that I created. I was just happy to have a class connect me to an art form that has been around for thousands of years. Who even came up with using mud, burning it and drinking from it? Am I the only one amazed by this?
After cleaning our stations, we varnished our pots — I went for the warm amber tone.
I did get a warning at the end of the class that due to my creative mishap, my pot might not hold, so I guess I will find out in four to five weeks — when it is time to pick up my masterpiece.
Studio72
Ritchie | 9909 72 Ave NW, Edmonton | studio72.ca
