I have a fondness for the verses in the Bible about art, artisans and where God is a potter and creator. A big part of my story is creating.
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The
Pink Room: Thoughts About Intentional Living
Chapter
8/ Change of Heart.
Part
2 (Previous post contain the previous chapters.)
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We
should know things are finite, and it should not be hard to remember, but it
is. Similarly, I've noticed that God pursues but is not in pursuit. There is though,
a gentle pressure toward knowing Jesus.
For
instance, there was a time when I was afraid to pray and gently and slowly God
whittled away that fear, now I look forward to it. Gentle pressure is something
you hear about in massage or other physical therapy which seems somehow
appropriate. There is also a great deal of this in creating wheel thrown
pottery. I wrote a letter to a friend about this very thing a while ago.
“Hey Rebekah, about your question...
I began potter's wheel work and it really opened my eyes to what that
verse [you brought up.] First, you make a ball of clay and pound it until you
are confident that there aren’t air pockets. Then you smash it, or throw it,
onto the wheel until it is firmly stuck-- stuck stuck. Then you hit it as hard
as you can a few times to get it extra stuck.
“You ‘center’ by forcing the clay
evenly into the middle until it is a beautifully rounded mound. At this point,
you begin. You take that centered mound and redistribute the clay up into a
cone and smash it into a mound again at least three times… …and you can start
shaping.
“You press a hole down the middle, I
use my thumbs, and pull up the sides (one hand inside and one outside,) not
once but at least three times-- then you can reshape the walls by continuing to
pull them up... [at this point] you can shape the form... you press and pull
and form with hands and fingers and tools and all this while continually
dousing it in water, and cleaning water out of the inside and off the
base; and putting more water on the outside and correcting things that happen
along the way. You have to be incredibly consistent, firm, unforgiving of sway…all
the while have an eye on what the clay is trying to do and work with it. You
respond to the direction it is going and what it can bend to, and stretch to
and be formed into...
“You get to a point of understanding
that it is what it is, and you are done with [shaping it.] Then you trim the
bottom, cut it off that stuck place you tried so hard to make it stay on in the
beginning. And you set it aside to firm up—drying half way. Then when it is
ready [about half dry] you take it and refine the bottom and put details in the
clay if you want to, or you put a handle on it--all of which seem like a huge
step backward because you either put it back on the wheel and take gouges and
cut away extra clay or you scrape and scratch the surface or you score the surface
and attach more clay...then you set it to fire.
“You fire Greenware to Bisqueware
and it shrinks about seven percent and becomes pottery. Most often, lots of
dunking in glazes, and sign it, and fire it again--and it shrinks another seven
percent. Then it is ceramic. Then it can be used but is a very different
material than when it started and can be broken now, but with the right care
and proper use it is beautiful forever.”
I had a great pottery professor. He
would talk about the art of pottery and the mark of the potter. Many of the
greatest potters intentionally leave fingerprints in the body or glaze to show
their mark.
Japanese
have Kintsugi (“golden joinery,”)
were a piece of pottery will be damaged and they fill the crack with gold. They
believe that the piece is even more valuable. An ancient art of fixing broken pottery with lacquer dusted
with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. They actually are emphasizing the
breaks instead of hiding them. Sometimes the repair is even more beautiful than
the original. Finding beauty in the imperfect is a related idea, part of the
Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi. There
is also a concept that expresses remorse when something is wasted, feeling
of mottainai, so it is important to get the pieces back to their
intended purpose.------------------
Before I realized what the finger prints in potter were, I just saw “flaws.” Before I understood that some cultures valued something broken and fixed, I just saw patches. After (I learned of the mark of the potter and extremely valuable “fixed” pots,) I thought it was a tiny doorway into a larger story.
The mark of the potter, I really
liked that thought. How the creator’s impression, influence, or mark was easily
identified in the creation. And then I found out about Kintsugi—which is even more beautiful.
We are carriers of the mark of the
potter and gold filled cracks—if we let Him redeem the cracks. Because we bear
His image, we are creators, too. We leave marks in what we create, and in others’
lives—my prayer is that the mark I leave are good ones or can fill an old wound
with gold--help create a meaningful story or help others to realize their stories
are meaningful.
The
wounds shape us and that is part of where we become unique. There are no
mistakes and God does not waste anything.
