Can I ask my pottery teacher to stop praising my bowl as a sculpture?
Funny'Very expressive,' my pottery teacher said, turning my bowl until its lowest side faced the room.
I asked whether it was meant to lean that much. He said it had movement. It certainly does: it looks like a banana trying to leave a swimming pool.
I'm four sessions into a beginners' course. I signed up to learn how to make a roughly even bowl. The teacher is friendly and gives detailed demonstrations to people who ask technical questions. When I show him mine, he mostly finds a kind description. I laugh, so perhaps he thinks I'm pleased.
At the last session he put my bowl on the display table beside two deliberately uneven pieces. I wanted to ask how to fix the high side, but it felt rude to interrupt a compliment.
How do I ask for useful correction without demanding that he call my banana-pool an artistic failure?