Mixing Soup

Handmade ceramics to create with your hands

The sensitivity of our senses sharpens, perhaps because suddenly there is nothing else in the world than what is right before our eyes, that which we touch with our fingers.

Author: Aina Coll

Photographer: Jaume Oliver

It is said that pottery is the new yoga, another form of self-care beyond exercise, skin care, and healthy eating. Those who have dabbed their hands in clay and sat at the potter's wheel, both enthusiastic amateurs and passionate experts, say that working with clay relaxes them, stimulates their creativity, and lifts their spirits. They say that when you leave the class you feel much better than when you came in. More than enough reason, in our opinion, to come to Son Ferriol and experience it first hand at the Mixing Soup workshop.

Marina Bonnin, the alma mater of this half workshop, half coworking place, welcomes us amidst aprons and enameled ceramics, like inspiring objects that who knows, we might create someday. Here, weekly classes and experiences are offered to beginners and advanced students in small groups of up to 8 people. The workspace is also shared with artists and craftspeople.

Enthusiastic and hospitable, the hostess -who has not only been trained but has worked as well in London, Stockholm, San Francisco, Kyoto and New York before embarking on her own project in Mallorca- starts with the theory: the first step is to calculate the weight of the clay -250 grams, she tells us, is adequate for small pieces of tableware such as bowls, cups and glasses, which is our goal today-. Then it's time to knead the clay with the chameleon technique. That is, as we understand it, mixing the clay well with repetitive but slow movements to eliminate the air.

Having grasped the theory, we put on our aprons and get down to work. From the first movement we sense why those who try it like it so much: when you connect with the clay, time takes another rhythm and the sensitivity of our senses is accentuated, perhaps because suddenly there is nothing else in the world than what we have right before our eyes, that which we touch with our fingers.

With the dough compact and well rounded, it's time to sit down in front of the lathe, a challenge for inexperienced people like us, so Marina, to reassure us, teaches us how to place and move our hands, a process that also hangs on the wall -stamped on a poster as a cheat sheet- that we do not lose sight of for what may happen.

And what happens, in the end, is that nothing is as easy as it might seem, but Marina has the gift of making us feel calm. The gift of transmitting to us that there is no possible mistake, only path, learning and emotion. Yes, emotion that is fueled by the rhythm that makes our bowl, and later our vase, take shape and become contoured.

We proudly sign our first ceramic creations with a toothpick and leave them at Mixing Soup to dry and bake. Two weeks later we will return eagerly, very eagerly, to paint them or, who knows, to pick them up and leave them as they are. In its natural state, imperfect and raw, reminding us that, as always, it is the experience what really counts.