I went to the Ukrainian folk festival last Saturday. It definitely was a fun time, and I learned plenty about Ukrainian culture and the struggles they currently face. Even ate some pierogis, which were quite tasty.
At one point in my journey, I happened across a vendor who had several dozen handmade cups and pots and mugs for sale. He also sat at a potter’s wheel and was throwing some clay.
“Would you like to try this?” he asked me.
Well … it certainly wouldn’t hurt … one donation in a can later, and I’m sitting next to him at the potter’s wheel.
“You need to put this on first,” he said, handing me a cloth apron. Yeah, probably wouldn’t do well to get clay all over my Blotto T-shirt. 🙂
Back at the wheel. He placed a lump of wet clay at the center of the wheel, and the wheel span. Step by step, he guided my hands into making the lump cylindrical, then showed me how to carefully spread the clay out to cup-size, then bit by bit he guided me toward creating the cup walls and center.
This seems simple enough. Certainly a lot easier than the wood turning I tried years ago.
A few minutes later, we transferred the clay cup to a paper plate. “You made a cup. Congratulations.”
Fantastic … now what do I do with it?
See, this is a clay cup. It was never fired in a kiln. Trust me, I have experience in this topic as well.
He told me that an unfired clay mug could stay on a shelf and help purify the air.
Never thought of it that way …
But I’ll probably use it at some point for a photo project. So there’s that. And I did make a charitable contribution that will, in some way, shape or form, help the Ukrainians in their struggle against the invading Muscovites, so there’s that.
Oh, you want to see the cup, don’t you?
You know what? I can make that happen, too.
That’s right. 20 million years from now, some far-distant culture will find this in a pile of rubble, and wonder what tales it tells.
Maybe I should have added my blog website address, to help them out. 😀
Chuck The Writer 
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