Pretty much what art school was about

ust outside of Solstice, my printmaking professor gave me an assignment. My assignment was to figure out what it was that she, and another of my professors wanted me to do with the objects in front of me. The objects were what was either a square-shaped soup bowl or a giant teacup sitting on either a square plate or a giant square saucer. They were placed on a pottery wheel, so I decided I should spin them to see if my task would become clearer to me.

I started off slowly, then increased the speed. To my surprise, even when the set was spinning at full speed (and miraculously not flying off) it still looked rectangular. This discovery was extremely exciting to me. Very gently, I touched the outside edge as it spun. It became wet clay, and deformed slightly. I touched it again, and changed the form even more. I decided my assignment was to recreate the bowl and saucer, but in a circular form. I was really out of practice though, and every time I tried to pull up the rim of the plate it came up too high, and was too chunky.

I decided to give it one really good go, and put all of my concentration into the pull. Suddenly the clay was coming up, higher and higher in a wall, all in an instant and suddenly I had created a vessel, somehow around myself, so that I was seated inside of it with the walls rising above my head. It was now bright red, though the original vessels were a cool color. I was very proud, because I have never created anything even remotely that large, or with walls so even or thin. I had to get out though, so I pushed on the wall in front of me and it gently crumpled to the ground.

I never found out if I had completed the assignment, but I was completely satisfied with what I had done, and so were my professors, I think.