The Brief and Wondrous Life of Pus

Erin’s Misadventures in a Clay Class

Recently, I had the opportunity to sign up for a “clay class” at a summer camp I attended. Now I didn’t know what to expect — my only reference points involving clay were Animal House, where a guy goes to get a date pretending to be the boyfriend of a recently deceased co-ed who died in a kiln accident, and Ghost, where Patrick Swayze…well, he made every female want to sign up for a pottery class immediately.

Bringing it back to the present day, I enter a creatively decorated art room and am handed a lump of modeling clay. We are allowed to make whatever we want. A few examples are scattered about if we want to use them, but we are free to explore.

Now, I genuinely admire those who can see a blank page and see a picture in their head or, in this case, see a lump of clay and know immediately how they want to mold it. I’m not one of those people. So I ended up sitting there for a solid ten minutes. Sure, I can make a coaster, but I have ten back home. I can make a mug, but I have no more cupboard space. But then it came to me…why does it need to be functional? Why can’t I just make something because it is fun to do?

After this breakthrough, I felt free but still lacking in ideas. Finally, I saw a giant octopus that somebody had painted on the wall. Aha! I can try to make that! I got to work.

I learned that creating a clay octopus involves more than meets the eye. For example, the head/body can very easily resemble…