The wall of first bowls

Above the glaze buckets there is a long wooden shelf, and on it sit the first bowls people ever made here. Slightly wobbly rims. Glaze pooling thick on one side. One cup that is unmistakably a cup and unmistakably a first try.

We started the shelf by accident. Somebody left a beginner bowl behind, it survived the kiln, and it was too good to throw away and too honest to sell. So it went on the shelf. Then another. Now the shelf is full.

Students point at it on their first night, half worried: is that what mine will look like? Yes, we say. That is the point. Every potter you admire has a shelf somewhere like this one, back at the beginning.

If you take a class with us and make something you secretly like, do not be surprised if it ends up up there for a while. We will give it back. We promise.