91Èȱ¬

From Sarah Joseph, Editor of a Muslim lifestyle magazine:

When I leave the studio today I will make my way to a different kind of a studio. I will be heading over to an art centre where a kiln of glazed pots is waiting for me. My first full kiln, representing months of work and experimentation.

Clay somehow resonates with me. In Islam's creation account the first human was formed of clay. Yet, I didn’t take pottery further when I was at school because I never felt good enough. Thirty years followed of clay-like activities - papier-mâché sculptures, salt dough plaques, coloured plasticines, even my apple pies would have the most intricate roses and flourishes on them! Last year however I overcame that sense of inadequacy to take the risk to see if working in ceramics was for me.  It hasn’t been a perfectly smooth road, however I have managed to eke out enough time for lots of trial and error, to see what I enjoy, and what I don’t, to slowly find my feet.

Here is the thing though – when I open that kiln in a couple of hours – it could all be for nothing. I could find a kiln where a single pot has exploded or fallen, ruining everything else. I could find glaze which has run, crazed, pitted, blistered, shivered or crawled, or any other problem that happens to pots when you fire them at such extraordinary temperatures. Or I could find a kiln filled with hand carved bowls, vases, and tiles, just as I imagined them to be.

More broadly these are the risks of life. Daring to do something even though you may not be good at it. Committing to something even though the everyday responsibilities of life pull you the other way. Experimenting. Working out what you like, and what you don’t. Risking that other people may not like what you do. Risking everything going wrong because that is the nature of life. And you know what – whatever that kiln holds for me, it was worth it. Working in clay have been some of the happiest hours I have spent in recent years, and even if it all goes wrong, I will continue to strive – as in clay, as in life.