Kurinuki

Emily, Cheyenne's ceramic's instructor, stood near the standing potter’s wheel. Wearing the standard art teacher's gear with a shiny nose ring and all black clothing, Emily announced that students would be making a garlic pot using the Kurinuki technique. "The what?" Cheyenne, a somewhat accomplished pottery student, frowned. "The Kurinuki technique. It’s from Japan. We're going to take a solid block of clay and carve out a vessel for storing garlic. It's organic and free form." Emily smiled and stretched out her hand which held a two pound block of clay. "So no wheel throwing?" Cheyenne blurted out. The five other students shook their heads. They eyed one another like Emily was a guest instructor from Neptune. Cheyenne lived for the precision of slapping a ball of clay on the wheel. Pushing and squishing it into a predetermined shape as it spun around on the bat. Too much pressure on the left and the whole structure leaned right. Pull the clay up too fast and it folds in on itself looking like a Dr. Suess vase. Precise and predictable. That’s what Cheyenne liked about being a potter. Kind of like her life had been up until recently when her beloved neighbor died, her sister announced she had lymphoma, and the pipes burst in her home causing $17,000 worth of damage. Emily held the block of clay up high, "So imagine a box shape and then carve it from the inside out. Like this. Sculpt the outside." Slack-jawed, Cheyenne and all the other students stared as Emily placed the lump of clay on the banding wheel and commenced digging out blobs of clay from the center. She scooped and dug with a looped wire tool. She shaved off pieces from the outside. The garlic pot looked to Cheyenne like an art piece her ten year old granddaughter might make. After a moment of reverie that came out of nowhere, Cheyenne wondered to herself but maybe she said outloud, "Jesus, this is kind of like my life right now. Free form. No measuring at all. Just grab a block of clay and start digging from the center out." “Let the shape become itself!” Emily instructed as clay was flying. After class Cheyenne stepped back to survey her garlic pot that was heavy enough to use for weight lifting. And yet, she found the process meditative and freeing. Maybe there is some value to this Kurinuki technique Cheyenne mused. Not that she’d ever use this technique again or try to shape her life from the inside out by choice.