Following the relaxation of COVID restrictions in mid 2022, I took my first pottery class along with my fiancée taught by Bart in Kessel-Lo, Belgium. The main purpose was to make handmade bowls and pots that we planned to give as a gift to our families during our wedding later in 2022.

Our first set of pottery lessons were very interesting, and our teacher gave us a quick overview of the whole process of making pots in 3 hours (which in reality can actually take a few days). He already had clay bowls at different stages of preparation that he used to demonstrate this process in an accelerated form. Although (as expected) our first pots were not very pretty, we really enjoyed the whole process of shaping the clay on the wheel and trimming the bowls when they are partially dry (also called as leather hard). These steps were followed by bisque firing them in the kiln, glazing the pots and then glaze firing them again in the kiln, which finally gave the pots a nice shiny smooth surface, making them impermeable and able to hold liquid without absorbing them. These steps of bisque firing, glazing and glaze firing were taken care of by our teacher, as it was too much to learn in two 3-hour sessions.

After the first session, I really enjoyed the process of making pottery, and decided to continue taking more classes with Geert and Elise at Craquele in Leuven, Belgium, as it was closer to my home. Over the next few months, I focused more on the technique and the fundamentals of shaping clay on the wheel and the trimming process. In the later sessions, I also learned more about the glazing process, which I found equally interesting.

I plan to continue my pottery exploration and experimentation with glazing. I am looking forward to pushing my skills on the pottery wheel trying out many other forms made for both decorative as well as practical purposes.