Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Failure is something in craft you never eliminate entirely.
At the beginning it can feel frustrating, as in most cases, as you lack experience, you can’t really specify why something failed or broke or collapsed. It happens too quickly and it’s not always possible to figure out what precise error, or combination of mistakes, led to the vessel being ruined.
This is precisely why failure is so important, as when combined with experience and time, you start being able to recognise why specific failures occurred. You have to fail in order to learn and thus I’ve always found it helpful to try and diagnose why something went wrong, rather than simply slamming a fist down onto the pot, although I do of course still do that from time to time.
It is something you begin to encounter less as you gain experience, or rather, you learn how to see it coming. Bad clay, improperly prepared, that’s a poor place to start, or trimming a vessel that’s already marred by an undulation that sets the pot off-centre. You can learn to feel and see the conditions where failure becomes more likely, for the most part, but of course there’s still those moments were pots simply collapse suddenly.
With this vase, I could feel that I trimmed the portion between the neck and body too finely. As I was trimming it, I felt movement and there was a shift in the walls. I couldn’t clock where it was precisely, yet, when the body portion slumped, I knew immediately what I did wrong.
#fails #craft #craftsmanship #pottery #blooper
Failure is something in craft you never eliminate entirely.
At the beginning it can feel frustrating, as in most cases, as you lack experience, you can’t really specify why something failed or broke or collapsed. It happens too quickly and it’s not always possible to figure out what precise error, or combination of mistakes, led to the vessel being ruined.
This is precisely why failure is so important, as when combined with experience and time, you start being able to recognise why specific failures occurred. You have to fail in order to learn and thus I’ve always found it helpful to try and diagnose why something went wrong, rather than simply slamming a fist down onto the pot, although I do of course still do that from time to time.
It is something you begin to encounter less as you gain experience, or rather, you learn how to see it coming. Bad clay, improperly prepared, that’s a poor place to start, or trimming a vessel that’s already marred by an undulation that sets the pot off-centre. You can learn to feel and see the conditions where failure becomes more likely, for the most part, but of course there’s still those moments were pots simply collapse suddenly.
With this vase, I could feel that I trimmed the portion between the neck and body too finely. As I was trimming it, I felt movement and there was a shift in the walls. I couldn’t clock where it was precisely, yet, when the body portion slumped, I knew immediately what I did wrong.
#fails #craft #craftsmanship #pottery #blooper
