For those of you who are potters (or even if you work in another medium) – do you ever fall out of love with clay (substitute medium of choice)?  I do and I’m not quite sure why.  I’ve tried nailing it down in my head – is it the sales aspect?  Or frustration at seeing some very fine factory produced work from Asia selling for pennies?  Or lack of ideas?  Or technical difficulties?  Or keen competition?  Or, or, or???

I seem to be afflicted by all of the above from time to time and am really trying to make an objective analysis of my two steps forward, one step back position with clay.  Literally, I distanced myself from clay in May & June by not making any work at all.  It’s not that I don’t like touching the material, it’s more a question redefining what I make and what I want to see happen with the end products.

Coiled Mug

Let’s face it, it’s tough to make a living as an artist.  Throw in teaching, selling in galleries, in person, and online and one begins to approach being able to support oneself.  If you are more of a production potter, then you stand a better chance short of being a pottery super star.  I guess what I realized about myself is that I’m not happy doing all of the above at the same time.  I never have been very good at juggling.

So, in an effort to reclaim my love of clay, I’m taking the selling aspect out of my clay experience.  Or more correctly, I’m removing the pressure to make a living as an artist and am simply moving to more of a hobbyist making what I want and selling here or there when it suits my frame of mind and schedule.  As an observer, you might tell me that you could have told me this – but somehow I had to decide this myself for it to stick.  I think that’s why I decided to go back to school (albeit another creative field, but one where salary is more livable) this fall.  For a time, I even considered selling all of my pottery equipment in one fell swoop.  But, I know I would regret this when the love returns.  And it will…because it always does.

Pinched Bowl

In my last post, I showed a hand built box along with a large coiled bowl that I made last week.  I have gone back to basics to help reclaim some of the joy that I originally found when I first touched clay in 2002.  Coiling and pinching are a pottery student’s first projects and there is something magical transforming a lump of clay into something – anything.  I had to laugh though – I think I messed with my coiled bowl for the better part of 5 hours – not necessarily the route to efficiency or wealth.    But, I guess that was my point when I decided to make these projects – sort of clay as zen master.  I am not planning on selling these either – they will serve more as a reminder about why I turned to clay in the first place seven years ago.

This post isn’t meant to be all dark and brooding either…it’s simply a revelation I recently made about myself.  I love pottery, making, buying, touching – I just don’t want to be a professional potter after all.  I truly hope that this sentiment comes across today.

So where is this blog going?  I’m not sure.  Most likely, it will continue as it has with a bit about my interests, clay work, connections found and maybe even some school projects thrown in here and there.

Here I am standing in the Colorado Potters Shared booth at the farmers market before it opened yesterday morning

Meanwhile, I had a busy weekend including a stint at the Old South Pearl Street Farmers Market early yesterday morning.  But, wait – I just said I’m taking the selling aspect out of my clay experience.  True, but I did say I’d sell some of my stuff when I felt like it and this was one of those times.  I didn’t have much in the way of pottery, but I did bring my ceramic jewelry which generated a few sales and lots of interest – one of my booth mates even commented that I would have made a lot of money if I charged a $1 a touch.   A local gallery even inquired as to whether I’d be interested in showing my jewelry at their First Friday events.  I make stuff that I also like to buy and jewelry is one of those things.  Hopefully that comes across in the things that I do make – that they’re made with love by someone who is enjoying what she does.  I think this is also true in reverse because it’s also reflects the type of person from whom I buy whether pottery, food, or services.   Laissez faire….

Have a great week,

Cynthia

Covered ^6 stoneware box

Pausing on vacation photos….  On Thursday, it was easy to pry myself away from my computer and head out to the studio for the first time in a long time.  Some how, I didn’t melt or implode when I didn’t have access to a computer while on vacation and decided it’s just better for my sanity to sign off for the day after finishing my coffee and to leave it off till the next day.  I don’t know about you all, but my lap top sucks a lot of time away from my day.  Anyway, I warmed up by making a covered box that I textured with embossed paper.  I did something a little different this time around, I added the knob and feet while the box was still fairly wet.  I had issues the last time around of adding feet after the body was considerably dry and having them fall off and “glaze glueing” them on post bisque fire.

Coiled ^6 stoneware bowl

Then I went into regression mode.  I shouldn’t say that.  I didn’t have an agenda, and didn’t feel like throwing – so I decided to start coiling a bowl.  I tried coiling the bowl using a large plastic bowl coated with WD40 (in background), but that didn’t work so well.  It stuck to the bowl and then I remembered some large hump plaster molds I made last year and pulled one out.

Interior of coiled bowl is smooth, outside rough

Much better.  Coiling is meditative, but hardly a time saver.  Nonetheless, I enjoyed the process  so much that I made another one yesterday.

It's a generous 12" across in diameter

I like that there is no clay waste using the coiling method – no trimming etc. etc.  All the futzing is up front.  I even made a coiled mug and decided to try my hand at pinching a bowl.  Also not as easy as it looks to get the walls an even thickness.  I’m not sure either coiling or pinching are techniques to continue using in my future clay career, but it was a good way to ease back into the studio.

Now, I need to lace up my sneakers – off for a 7 mile run with my training group (I’ve been dreading it since last night, but I know I’ll feel good once I get out there!)

Cynthia

Agate ware circa 2005-06, cone 6 white and brown stoneware, glazed on inside only.

If you tuned in recently, I want to assure you that I’m much better though I’ve been quiet on the blog front mainly because it’s been a busy weekend.  Yesterday, I ran with my training group – about 6.5 miles total for me.  I felt great and after a post run breakfast, I headed to the Colorado Potters Guild for our annual group cleaning day.  I both dread and loathe the day because cleaning is not on my top 10 list of things to do, but it’s also sort of fun to get together with most of the guild members – this is something that doesn’t happen frequently aside from our biannual sales in the spring and fall.  I closed the day by catching a Flobots concert at the Filmore last night with my hubby.

I feel the urge to get my hands in clay this next week – especially after spending time at the Guild yesterday.  Even though we were cleaning, there’s nothing like the smell of a pottery studio to get in the mood.

Architectural scale is triangular in shape and has 6 possible different scales.

Meanwhile, I agreed to do a small scale garden design for a friend of mine.  Nothing big – and I knew it would be a good exercise in preparation for returning to school in the fall.  I went to her house, took photos, measured and spent this afternoon reacquainting myself with my architectural scale while drawing a “plan view” of her home and garden.  I worked in 1/4″ scale meaning that each 1/4″ = 1′ in real life.  The project isn’t difficult and I’m only really recommending some plants and hard scape details to replace some ugly overgrown evergreen shrubbery that she removed.  She lives in a lovingly restored 1910 bungalow that has been in her family since construction a century ago and I’m recommending plants that are period appropriate that can handle our semi-arid climate based on the hours of sunshine that her yard receives every day.

She keep asking me to name a price, but since I’m not formally trained (yet – though I do have my Colorado Master Gardener certificate handy), I’ve been hedging.  I think I will tell her I’ll do it for a few bottles of nice red wine.

Have a great week,

~Cynthia

P.S.  My husband thinks I should call my last post “Glazed and Confused”.  While I concede that this is a great post title, I’ve file it away for future use.

Mugs thrown last Thursday

Where did the time go?  Last week, I realized with a start that 5th grade graduation was a week away and I hadn’t even started making teacher appreciation gifts yet.  Sure, I could have purchased something, but I wanted to give some of the teachers a more personalized gift.  Plus, they all know me as a clay person and might have been a little disappointed to receive something store bought.  Though, I don’t think that they expect gifts either….

So, with a week to go, I set out at warp speed to make some mugs.

Handles attached on Sunday - Bisque fired on Tuesday

With a little babying and some begging & cajoling, I added handles and bisque fired fasssssssssst – 4 days after making the mug bodies.

Whew - glazed and decal fired on Wednesday and Thursday respectively

I managed to squeeze all 5 mugs into my test kiln and got to glazing and adding decals.

My favorite mug - "math = language of the universe"

This one is my fave and is a present for Jasmine’s math teacher.  I am super proud of my daughter – she skipped 5th grade math this year and she, along with a handful of other kids at her school did the 6th grade math curriculum with “Mr. Reeves”.  One of his favorite sayings is “math is the language of the universe”.

Pretty cool...if I do say so myself

If you think about the statement, it’s true.  1 + 1 = 2 regardless if you’re in Denver or Shanghai or the planet Saturn.

For the art teacher who let me use her room every Tuesday after school for the past 2 years to teach my clay class

I can’t leave out the art teacher who I personally think has the hardest job in the school.  She only gets 45 minutes a week with each class and is constantly cleaning up and preparing for a new class.  There is no down time at all.

Look at the shrinkage between bisque and glaze fire!

I didn’t glaze all the mugs – only the ones that I absolutely needed today – last day of school.  I was pretty surprised at how much the mugs shrunk after the glaze fire.  The mugs were roughly the same size after throwing – used 1 lb of cone 6 porcelain clay.  This is another example of seeing is believing…in the Mile Hi Ceramics Catalog it does say that shrinkage is about 18%.

I used to be sad that my daughter didn't look much like me, but clearly I'm relieved she takes after her dad

But I digress.  I mentioned earlier that I am super proud of my daughter – she is a good kid and a great student.  I told her the other day that I hope she’ll stay geeky through high school – to which she responded, “I’m not a geek!”  So I rephrased, “It’s okay to be a little nerdy….”  Her response, “I’m not a nerd!”  I tried again, “It’s okay – I’m a big dork myself.”  Big smile from her, “Mom I’m a dork too.”  I remembered that she and her posse of friends were called dorks in the beginning of the year by some of the “cool kids” and in their defense, they devised an ancronym in response to those who called them dorks.

D.O.R.K. = Defense Over Rude Kids.   They weren’t called dorks for long.

Must leave to get ready for 5th grade Continuation,

Cynthia