Ten Half-Magic Passes of the Hands

On the day I was supposed to sit down at the potter's wheel for the first time, half the studio wished me luck, which surprised me, but it soon became clear why. Growing a lump of clay into a vessel is a set of about ten consecutive half-magical passes of the hands, in every one of which you can screw up fatally (which is exactly what I did))). The hardest part is keeping your fingers motionless relative to the (cosmos) table — this is not my beloved social dancing, where your hands responsively react to your partner's hands, no. If you responsively react to the pot, it quickly slides off somewhere from a beautifully centered thing and that's it. Picture someone spinning a mace on a long braid — that's roughly what it'll look like. Very funny, but there's no going back) And also, if your fingers aren't at the right angle and aren't rock-solid enough, you can catch on the clay and poke your finger straight through it, alas. After 4 failed attempts I started to understand how to do the first three magic passes. I really hope this is all just mechanical skill and that next time I'll learn the whole thing, I'll keep you posted. In Harry Potter, was there a spell "potpullyourselftogetherbeautifulrightaway"?