Ravi, the Trimmer
Photo: Quino Al / Unsplash
This is an illustrative story. Names and some details have been changed to protect the privacy of the people we work with.
When a thrown pot has dried to a leather-firm state, it goes back on the wheel to be trimmed — excess clay carved away, a foot ring shaped beneath the base. Done badly, it ruins the piece. Done well, it is invisible. Ravi does it well.
He came to us after years of unstable work that left him, in his words, “always tired and never sure.” Trimming suited his steady temperament. He can feel through his tools when a wall is the right thickness, and he takes visible pride in a perfectly balanced foot.
“People hold the top of a bowl,” he says, turning one over in his hands. “But I make the part they never look at just as good. That’s how you know it’s honest work.”
