throwing cups (against a wall)
getting past a quittin' zone
I’m taking a long time to write Substack posts because I spend a crazy time editing them, and it’s beginning to not be fun. But writing is 95% editing, so is it that I don’t like writing?
😂 🤷♂️ I’m gonna try and just degenerately post with “good-enough editing” and see how that goes.
I’ve taken up a ceramics class as of late and have been enjoying myself. It’s nice to feel like an idiot again.
With any kind of hobby, there’s a quitting zone in the early days when you’re not familiar with the fundamentals to freely flow (or really understand) what is actually going on. You’re kind of discovering things as they’re taught to you. I call it the quitting zone because the people who get frustrated here have a high probability of leaving.
I talk about this with my sister sometimes — when starting out, there’s always a lot of conscious effort, learning, and improving involved to get to a point where you’re on stable ground to play freely. That’s when “creativity” starts to feel like creativity. She plays violin, so she’s experienced that special zone of dog-shit frustration. If you don’t push through and learn those fundamentals, you’re not going to freestyle any kind of music in the future.
I think my jiujitsu coach put it nicely — “learn the rules so you can break them later.” Basically it’s a form of deeply understanding the fundamentals so you can take their essence and freestyle with it. That’s why rolling is fun — I know sufficient fundamentals and why things work, which allows me to make shit up.
This is all to get to a point where you have just enough mastery to play around with some of the variables. From there, improvement and growth can skyrocket.
Back to ceramics. I’m definitely not at the point of freestyling anything. I’ve thrown some cups but I can’t control what ends up happening, which indicates a lack of fundamentals. Centering and coning the clay (very important fundamentals) are still very difficult. It’s surprisingly hard to get the clay to just sit in the center and not wobble around. The most frustrating thing so far is putting force into the clay to stop the wobble, only to have it wobble more 😭.
With doing something new, I’d argue that people need different types of support during the quitting zone in any craft to get them past the hump.
The cleanest, best version is that they chose the craft with purpose, and are really curious about it — that means being ok with tinkering and the shitty parts. If you like that process, you come back for more, and when you come back for more, well, you get better. With jiujitsu, it’s getting absolutely smashed and manhandled, not knowing how to move your body, and getting really curious about how to solve those problems while still having a big ass smile on your face.
With ceramics, it feels similar. There are the sensory things — I love the way the clay feels, the sounds it makes, the way it molds itself with pressure. Centering is frustrating as fuck but I’m curious on how to get better and faster. Really enjoying that sensory feeling helps. There’s something even cathartic about having clay slop all over your clothes afterwards.
Other people need social support (a friend to come with them), teacher support (words of affirmation and private lessons), knowledge support (Youtube and instructionals), or a disciplinary incentive (paid for a class/membership, I should use it). Having small wins along the way helps too (threw some out-of-control cups, but they’re still cups 😂). All of them work to get past the hump. Do what you gotta do.
I still think longevity in a craft requires a deep seated curiosity. But eh, maybe falling in love with a craft is also part of the process 🤷♂️.