One must have passion (and compassion), and I suppose you are entitled a couple of interests to nurture along life’s journey (such as idol worship, of Taylor Swift and her ilk). But I stop at hobbies. Detractors will espouse, oh but you’ve gotta have a hobby, so that when you retire etcetera.
(By the way, a hobby has its origin in horse. In fact, a hobby is an ambling nag. Could there be a worse creature.)
So when SilverStreak bundled me off for a spot of clay modelling, I mistakenly fell for it, thinking the assignment had more to do with parading than with play-dough.
Picture the chagrin when I fetched up in a potter’s shed – So what’s this joint, is Beatrix here or what – mellifluously named Quiet Streams Pottery.
My potty-training master, GEK, produced one of the fifty shades of grey kilo of clay and sliced off a clump for me.
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Hello, GEK, first I am needing an Earl Grey and a Garibaldi (sultana biscuit lah you all) before I can start modelling.
I don’t play board games, don’t do any kind of sporting activity, and keep my distance from arts and crafts, neither knit and purl, nor make Hainanese chicken rice while learning to master the guitar via YouTube.
But enough of eat, drink, and be Mary. (She the Lady of Downton Abbey.)
The time had come for me to get my hands dirty.
Not quite the great big pottery throwdown, more a pat here, a pinch there, a dab of water round this, and a score underneath.
Those among you of sterner stuff, are likely acquainted with class tutors.
Who run the gamut of kindly teacher whose middle name is Patience, to the positively wicked whose middle name is ?@£%#&.
GEK is the quiet stream himself. Come sit down. Here’s your clay, I thought we could do a Goondu object. You just make a hole in this lump, with your thumb.
Press, push, pull, up, oh the base is too thick, lemme show you.
And pretty soon a shape formed.
Oh. You mean I have to make another, similar, like two halves?
Yes that’s the general idea.
While his Goondu was imperfectly perfect, mine lost its direction and that’s when you learn salvation.
Except MP (Master Potter) was honest, we have to cheat a bit here, he said.
And with a snip here, and a tilt there, I made something perfectly Goondu.
What joy to stick a pair of eyeballs on its foolish face.
‘cher, ‘cher – how many marks?
‘cher actually said I was not bad, and quite good.
With Smiley staring squarely at me I progressed to a right proper mug.
Balled the clay, slapped it, punched it, flattened it down for the count, and with rolling pin and two slides to keep its proportions, I made progress.
Guru Potter said, you either respond to the clay or it responds to you.
In other words, you already know what you are going to make, or in the fullness of fiddling with material that is almost alive, you create something you were least expecting.
The joy is singularly yours, briefly. Upon inspection Sifu Potter said, you are not bad you know, most people don’t ask questions (“may I have another biscuit”) and don’t bother with improving it.
In fact, GEK found this first-lesson student rather fussbudget.
It’s not melding, if leak how?!
Who knew you were so OCD?!
Either do it properly or don’t do lor! I’d spent too much time attempting to perfect an imperfection.
Yes, the art of pottery is also a mirror to your character.
So cheem right?
But it does truly give up bits of your personality.
How competitive, how kiasu, or how tidak-apa (lackadaisical) you are or can be.
Your selfishness may surface, your sense of aesthetics, even an eccentric side you never knew you had.
And the calm that envelops while you coax your clay into shape?
Some have art in them.
I have arthritis.
Think of it, pottery, as an exercise.
Picture eating and drinking off an object you handmade.
But first, look in on the Singapore Clay Festival.
Singapore Clay Festival’s annual Clay Makers’ Market will be happening this weekend. More than 3,000 ceramic works by some 220 potters will be on sale.
The OCBC Cups of Kindness exhibition will also be running to raise funds for Care Corner Singapore. There will be free demos and ticketed workshops as well occurring throughout the weekend.
More information available at https://www.singaporeclayfest.com.
Clay Makers’ Market
Location: Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre, Multipurpose Hall Level 7, 1 Straits Boulevard, Singapore 018906
Opening Hours: 8 - 10 November 2024 (Fri to Sun), 11am onwards
Admission: Day entry ticket: $10, Season pass: $18, Children under 1.2m enter free
Website: https://www.singaporeclayfest.com/
Tickets available here.
