Clay As A Metaphor For Life

Clay as a Metaphor for Life Clay is a very versatile thing much like our lives. Our lives keep on changing much like clay does. As we go through the process of creating something as simple as a pinch-pot we have to mold and refine it. Working with clay is a great creating process for me. I get to control the clay and help make it what I want it to be. In life I get to control my fate in the same sort of way and make sure that it is going to turn out the way I want it to.

When I get a piece of clay and am asked to make something out of it I do not just jump right in, I think about it and plan it out. In life if I am given a choice, I have to decide which choice will be more beneficial for me, before I actually make a decision. With clay I try to plan what I want to do with it and make it. It took me a while to gain control over the clay and have it turn out like I wanted it to turn out. Much like when we are little, our Parents do not give us much control over our own lives because they know that we ca not handle it yet, but as you grow we gain more and more control over your own life.

Every time I get a piece of clay I always work very hard to make it perfect. I mold it to the shape that I want it to be and then try and smooth out all the imperfections to make it as perfect as I can. The same goes with life too. We all have this idea of what the ideal person is like then we try and model ourselves after that person. With clay we start with an idea of what we want our pot to look like and then we try our hardest to make it look like what we pictured in our head. No matter how much time I spend refining my pot I always find small imperfections later on. In life no matter what I do I will never be perfect just like my pot.

There are many things that effect the outcome of my pot. The way I shape it, the timing, the glazing, the firing etc. As I go through that processing of making my pot, my pot is always changing. Every little thing that I do effects the outcome of my pot. There are a lot of different things or people that affect the way I act in life. Those people affect me just like I affect my pot.

When glazing a pot it is hard to know what kind of outcome you might get. Sometimes the color of the liquid clay is not the actual color of the glaze after it has been fired. When this happens I have to perform a glaze test so that I can find out what the outcome will be if I fire my pot with a certain glaze. You never really know what you are going to get when until you test it out. The same goes with life that are many times were you might have to test an idea out just to see if it will work.

Everyone in this world is very unique. We all have our own personalities and different features about us too. With clay almost every creation is unique in its own way, unless it is manufactured. Almost everyone puts there own style into their creation and therefore most pot turn out different in its own way. When I first started clay I remember we all had to do the same type of pinch-pot but after we were all done you could see how everyone's was different, whether it was just glazed different or just made different.

In many ways clay is much like our lives. We change like clay does and little things affect clay like little things affect us. We also mold clay much like the way we mold our lives. Over the course of this semester after working with clay I have realize how much the creative process of clay is a metaphor for life. When I was first introduced to clay I could not really tell but now I know that clay is much like our very unique lives.