Controversial author Simon Nolan (Whitehawk) has said he is ‘finished’ with pottery. In a wide ranging interview, he reveals that it had ‘never been more than bit of a whim, really.’
‘I only went about three times, ‘ he continued. ‘I thought it was all really boring and messy, to be honest. And the pots all looked a bit shit. I was quite keen at first but then, I don’t know, I just stopped going.’ When asked what kind of gap his abandonment of the artform would create in his life, he shrugged. ‘Barely measurable,’ he said. ‘Frankly, I couldn’t care less about it.’
Vince Quank, from the British Institute of Potters said it was ‘a shame’ that the artform was losing practitioners like this. ‘I suppose if everyone who liked pottery suddenly decided they didn’t like it anymore, then that could be a serious blow to the craft of pot throwing in this country. But just because one person decides he doesn’t like it after three goes, doesn’t really mean that much, in the wider sense. Many a dream has come to ruin at the wheel. We believe that pottery will continue to play a key role in the creative life of the nation.’
Julian Lovely, the Minister for Pottery and Tableware, issued a statement which outlined this administration’s vision for pottery over the next ten years. ‘This administration,’ it concludes, ‘has a vision for pottery over the next ten years.’
Reuters.
When my wife left me three years ago, after a period of binge drinking and drugging, I woke up one morning and decided that I wasn’t going to be a victim any more and that I was going to take control of my life and become a better person. I enrolled on a beginners pottery class that very afternoon. By the end of the first week, I’d made a coil pot and an ashtray. Within a month, word of my new past time had spread through my extended family, and I received my first commission – I was to produce a 1/72 scale model of my aunt’s beagle, Marmaduke.
It’s fair to say that I’d got a bit ahead of myself and in hindsight, it’s obvious that I wasn’t really ready for the level of pressure that professional pottery production brings with it. To cut a long story short, what with the divorce proceedings and the endless demands of my aunt, I quickly backslid into addiction.
This is just one story about how an apparently harmless hobby can ruin a life, but hopefully, if you publish my story, we can save countless others from spending Christmas on their own, endlessly filling and emptying a home-made pottery ash tray.
Wasn’t it Neil Young who so memorably said, ‘Every potter’s like a setting sun?’.
Glad I’ve finally found seomhtnig I agree with!
You’re fired.
I’m taking that on board. Or I would if I had the appropriate skill-set.