The Potter-Woman

A short story about the art of pottery.

One day - on my travels to see the most beautiful things in life - I came upon a small town. This place was where the potters had their work and living: men and woman making earth pots as an art.
In a street nearby the marketplace I took a look through the window of a dark brick house with a flat roof. Inside was a young woman in full passion with her work. On a turning wheel there was a tall pot slowly doing its circles while the potter-woman made gentle touches to it.
The door to the work-room was open. As quiet as I was able to do - there was no reason to request her attention and stop her from working - I took a step inside the house and all of a sudden my eyes went wide.
It took a minute before I became conscious that it wasn't me day-dreaming. What I saw, was not a trick of my mind. The potter-woman had no clothes on under her housekeeping-like work dress.
'Do you like what you see?' she said, giving me a smile. 'It's the art where water and earth come together into a body of solid stone.'
With an uncomforted feeling and for certain a bright-red face, I did search my brain to get the right words in my mouth.
'It's a breath-taking work of art.' It was the best I was able to come up with.
The potter-woman made her hands wet and went back to her turning wheel. She didn't seem to have any trouble with me looking straight at the full curves of her breasts. After she did the last delicate touch up with her pointing finger, she did brush her dirty hands clean on her work dress. Then she took the pot out to dry.
The heat in my head did go down a bit. As the potter-woman came back, I put the question if she would let me to take a picture of her. She gave the green light and even in front of my camera she didn't make any attempt to cover her breasts. The outcome is what I do respect as a true form of art.

The inspiration of this short story is based on the photo shoot "Potter-Woman" by David Dubnitskiy.

Author's Note

This story is written in Basic English, as designed by Charles K Ogden in 1930.