October 11, 2023
Your first 100 pots will be terrible. Throw them against the wall of your studio (literally, reclaim buckets love a good slam). Do not hide your failures. Put them on a shelf labeled “The War Wounds.”
Walk into the studio. Slap that five-pound bag of stoneware onto the bat. Center it. Open it. Pull the walls.
The female war is not a solitary one. Join a women’s pottery collective. The most powerful sound on earth is a circle of women centering clay together. The hum of five wheels is the sound of an army at peace.
To understand is to understand a modern movement where art therapy meets feminine rage, and where the potter’s wheel becomes a weapon of self-reclamation. Part 1: Decoding the Warrior Syllables Let’s break down the keyword into its four primal components. 1. Female War This is not a war of tanks or trenches. This is the internal war against perfectionism, the societal war against aging, the domestic war against invisible labor, and the professional war against the glass ceiling. For women in pottery, the “war” is the fight against the voice that says, “You are not an artist. You are wasting time. You should be doing something productive.” 2. I Am The most powerful declaration in human language. In the context of clay, “I am” is an act of presence. When a woman sits at the wheel, she is not a mother, a CEO, a partner, or a caretaker. She is simply a center of gravity. I am is the anchor before the storm of creation begins. 3. Pottery The medium of earth, water, air, and fire. Pottery is ancient; it is the first technology. Before metal, before writing, there was the vessel. For women, pottery holds a specific genetic memory—the vessel as womb, as storage, as the giver of life. But here, it becomes a weapon. 4. Best Not best in a competitive sense. “Best” here means most authentic . The best version of the self that emerges after the clay has been thrown, trimmed, glazed, and fired.