Falling in and out of love
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
Pinch Pots
Terracotta pinch pot cold finished with paint and beeswax
No decals to share today – maybe next post…. This pinch pot is a sample project that I made for my after school kid’s clay class and was inspired by the book Finding One’s Way With Clay: Creating Pinched Pottery and Working With Colored Clayswritten by Paulus Berensohn. I thought it would be a great project for my students whose ages range from 2nd – 5th grade. I tried to make it a fun project by instructing the kids to animate their pots by adding noses and in some cases full blown faces on their pinch pots.
Terracotta nose pinch pot cold finished – my daughter's nose pot
I normally use low fire white earthenware for my kids classes and decided to mix it up and bring in a terracotta. You should have seen the kids reactions! Their whole clay knowledge base was turned upside down – they had no idea that clay comes in colors and of course I had lots of potty talk happening. “Ewwww - this clay looks like poop!” etc. etc.
During our last class, we used acrylic paints to finish the pots and then sealed the exteriors with beeswax as an alternative to glazing since I won’t see the kids till mid January. We planted grass seed in the pots – which should be fun if it grows. The grass in my daughter’s pot is just now starting to sprout – I’ll post a follow up photo if it turns out. I think I’m going to make some more pinch pots – it was pretty satisfying.
Meanwhile, I added a WordPress Plugin that allows user to edit their own comments now for a set period of time in the event of typos etc. – if you have any problems with it, let me know. I also recently upgraded to WP 2.7 which allows nested comments, but it’s not functional on my blog yet because I need to update my theme to be compatible with 2.7. I just haven’t had the motivation to update it yet.
I have some errands to run right now so until later,
~Cynthia
