Your fingertips are your eyes

I listened to a really interesting podcast the other day about blind people who can see using echo-location.  The areas of their brains that have to do with vision where activated when they were using this technique.  This made me wonder, what is happening in my brain when I start work on a pinch pot?

During the early stage of building, when you are holding the clay in your cupped hands, passing it back and forth, pinching the walls to make them thinner–your fingertips are your eyes.  They give you so much information.  You can tell how thick the walls of the pot are, if they are consistent, and where there are bumps or thin spots.  You can evaluate this easily and more accurately with your fingertips than with your eyes.  It’s during this process of internal seeing that I wonder if my brain’s visual areas are active.

Imagine sitting in an MRI machine making pinch pots while  having a brain scan.  Luckily this isn’t going to happen and once I’ve developed an evenly thin, consistent piece, then I get the fun of deciding what to do to it!