The Mistake Wasn't in the Trimming
My son said this line to me while playing disc golf. I believe I just smacked a tree and had some sort of emotional reaction. But in that moment I realized he is 100% correct. He is 4 and already teaches his father lessons.
Now let's apply that to pottery trimming mistakes. In this video, I trimmed through the bottom of two pieces while filming. I did this twice within a few minutes. That kind of repeat failure shows something was off with my pieces. I always do the same foot trim and never have issues. I could have gotten angry and slammed some stuff. Done that before for sure. It was frustrating, you could hear my deep breath in the video. However, at that moment I realized my mistake was not made while trimming. It was made 3 days before while throwing. I threw a few pieces with thin bases. I think it was about 6 of them out of the 42 I produced that ended up too thin. It happens. I am human.
I often place a huge emphasis on throwing and getting the work done on the wheel. I have personal standards that I want to meet. I want excellence from every wheel thrown piece. I could slap a massive chunk of clay on the wheel and be done with it in two pulls. Then chuck it off to the side until it's ready to trim 6 ounces off at the end. Instead, I want to throw it as close to the finished size as possible. I believe that is true craftsmanship, when the piece is how it should be in the end by my skill and my hands. Minimal trimming just to create the foot. Yes, you can have a difference of opinion. Hell, you might like trimming. But I believe in getting it done up front when throwing. And in this particular instance, my throwing was lacking and trimming could not fix it.
There is something else to learn here as well. Most pottery trimming mistakes don't start at the trimming stage. If the pieces aren't thrown properly, no amount of money put into tools will fix the issues. Get it right on the wheel, then turn about and finish the process with a tool you have learned how to use properly.
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