Sometimes, the clay just refuses to center no matter how gentle I am or how much water I use...and that resistance is usually telling me something about me, not the clay. The glaze can craze even if the firing was perfect, a network of tiny cracks spiderwebbing across the surface. I used to see it as ruin, but now I see it as a map – telling me where the stresses lie, where the piece needs more support, where I need more support.