How clay helped me heal
The meditative properties of pottery and how it gave back purpose, a guest column
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How clay helped me heal
The meditative properties of pottery and how it gave me back my purpose
by Diana Baur
If you had told me as a young woman that at 66, I’d be a professional potter designing and making ceramics for five star restaurants and private collectors, I’d have called you crazy.
I’ve been a stoneware potter for 27 years, having come to the craft at the age of 36 after a career in business. It’s never been a hobby for me. I’ve always approached it as my passion and profession.
Learning pottery in Europe
After moving to Germany from the USA with my husband for his job, I found my equilibrium in handcraft instead of management, a far cry from what I had done before.
A friend from German language school suggested we take a ceramics course together to satisfy our creative itch. I had never done anything requiring artisan talent, but I thought it couldn’t hurt to try.
What we didn’t know was that we had found one of the oldest private ceramics schools in Northern Germany, qualified to train apprentices in the professional discipline of making stoneware and the related glazes.
What started out as a Thursday evening class quickly changed into a five year apprenticeship during which I trained in every aspect of stoneware ceramics, glaze chemistry and firing.
Pottery and my mental wellbeing
ADHD and generalised anxiety disorder make learning complicated processes challenging for me. But the opposite was true while I learned ceramics. At pottery school, I was calm and focused, everything seemed to make sense, and my self-confidence grew with each vessel I tried to perfect on the wheel.
Wherever we’ve lived in the last 25 years, I’ve had a pottery studio, which is essential to my mental health. When anxiety strikes, I know it’s time for me to get back into the studio.
Pottery is the best therapist. It never fails to calm and center me.
I’ve taught pottery privately over the years and have watched it work its magic on students of all ages. One of my students, the wife of a very dear friend, went on to become a dedicated studio potter herself.
I still recall helping her create her first flat bowl from coils in my studio, completely caught in the moment of making. It was such a gift to witness her joy.
Establishing my own style
My school followed the Japanese stoneware aesthetic, where there are specific proportions that make vessels feel comfortable in the hand. These teachings were essential to my understanding of making pieces that are both beautiful and functional.
But it would still take years of practice before I could take these fundamentals and establish my own signature style.
Being masterful at pottery is a process that requires, at least for me, a dedicated approach. I design a prototype piece, and then repeat the process of making that one design until the hand movements are automatic.
It’s only then that I’ve mastered a specific design.
Every time I try to make something too planned or detailed, I fail miserably, leading me to stay my own path of organic, free-flowing pieces that are durable, dishwasher safe, and define a certain urban rustic vibe when set on a table.
I’ve produced for clients worldwide for twenty years, but it’s really in the last ten that I’ve fully established my own style through ritually creating new designs.
A month for 40 plates and 40 bowls
I run my studio according to the workload of orders I have. For example, for 40 bowls and 40 plates, I will create the bowls for two straight days, allow a day of rest, and then refine and clean up the bottoms for two more days, and then decorate as needed.
That’s a week of my time. I then allow those pots to dry and start on the plates, using the same schedule. By the end of two weeks, 80 pieces are dried or drying.
When they are thoroughly dry, I fire everything to 900°C, after which I will start the glazing process. I mix my own glazes and strain them, and glaze each piece by hand — a very time consuming process. That many plates and bowls will take me about 5-6 glaze firings of 1250°C over 10-12 days.
This order, if I work extremely hard and have no problems, will take over a month. I normally allow myself about 8 weeks to complete an order of this size.
I take a few weeks off between large orders to clean the studio before the next onslaught and make some pieces for myself or collectors. I earn about half my income from pottery, and it takes up about half of my working schedule.
Learning to let go of outcome
There is nothing more important in pottery than internalising each step: forming, trimming, drying, firing, glazing. A myriad of things can go wrong. Attaching to outcome is something I learned early on not to do.
It is invariably my favourite piece in the kiln that cracks or warps, and often it’s my least favourite that turns out to be amazing. It’s incredibly humbling to strive for the best result possible while knowing things can, and often do, go wrong.
But I always go back and start again.
It’s in this gentle meditative work that I’ve found my purpose over and over. Almost three decades as a studio potter have grounded me in the wisdom of creating and letting go.
Studio pottery is the gracious practice of consistently improving while never achieving perfection.
Through word of mouth, I’ve become a ceramic designer/maker for several boutique wineries and restaurants in Italy. I love designing plates for culinary creations, and working with talented chefs and restaurateurs is a blast.
It keeps me on the cutting edge of ceramic and gastronomic design, which is something I never anticipated at this point in ,y life, or any point, to be honest.
It’s amazingly cool.
Interested in trying your hand at pottery?
If so, I suggest finding a studio with an atmosphere you feel drawn to. Try everything out before investing in your own equipment, as pottery is not an inexpensive endeavour!
And if you, like me, find yourself hooked, I wish you the lifetime of joy pottery can give you.
is an American potter, artist, gardener and cook in the Black Forest of Southern Germany and the wine hills of Northern Italy. She writes about the lifelong pursuit of purpose at .