The Good. The Bad. The Glazed.

Glazed and ready for the kiln
vs.
Glaze fired and ready to use

I love playing in clay. A big bag of clay. Water. The wheel. Lots of mud and mess. Let me throw out a slab. Cut it. slip it. Press it and make a mess. I'm all for it. Toss me in front of a wood kiln and let me feed the fire on very little sleep and then ask me to split some wood... Ok.

But how I dislike glazing. I think it goes back to my childhood. When I told my parents that I wanted to make pottery: I was enrolled in a ceramic painting class. Each week at the beginning of the class, we were given the choice between two pre-made bisqueware objects d' art. A or B, A or B, A or B. I would sit with the under glazes and paint them on, all the while, wondering why I couldn't make it pretty. I hand the eye/hand coordination of a monkey. Yes, I know, I was hard on myself at 12.

Now jump forward 30+ years. I still approach glazing with a slight bad taste in my mouth. You'd think I'd be excited to start the last step before a beautiful finished project. Not so much. It's like detention. I would sometime rather scrap kiln shelves than dip a pot into a glaze bucket. This just may be the reason I love to wood fire. Or I may just be lazy...

But it's also a great motivator. I've got to find creative ways to decorate my pots with the least amount of glazing craziness. Now that can be the fun part...

Time...

I really wish I had more of it. My job encompasses my Monday through Friday life and potting takes up the weekend. Ok, I do get a bike ride or two in most weekends. Good for the soul and the creative mind. Some of my best ideas come to me while cruising through the streets of Griffith Park. For some reason, dodging traffic makes me think of cheese plates.
But, when can a Mud Monkey find time to make all I think of? Heaven forbid someone ask me to do a fabulously social activity on the week ends. As much as I want to say yes, I think, but I've got 12 yarn bowls to trim and cut... Could I be more dedicated? Could I be more of a loser? What a delicate balance. If I don't say yes once in awhile, my friends will forget me and I'll never go out. (Vacuums are great for carpets but bad to live in.) Hey, sometimes I can get my friends to do arty/pottery things and life is grand...
If only the week was eight days long or I never needed to sleep, then I wouldn't have this problem. As it is, I'm still at work using the computer, I should go home and exercise and get to sleep. Or I could see if the kiln is cooled and see if the cheese plates are done. Tough choices...

Can a girl find happiness with a life elbow deep in mud?

By mud I mean clay...
And the above is a question I ask myself everyday. I do know that I am much happier on the weekends when I'm sitting at a potter's wheel with clay than I am at my day job during the week.
So, let's see what happens as I try to step away from the M-F/9-5 and try to be just a potter.

Things I need to do:

• Sell more pots
• Find new and exciting places to sell my pots
• Make more pots
• Think of any and all ways I can make money
• Be more organized
• Get more sleep
• Have confidence in my talents and pots
  
• Speak up more often about my talents and pots
  

Wish me luck, cause my job ends in the middle of May and I've got lots to do before then. And this is not the best of economic times, but I can't live life the victim of my fears.
And this little blogging endeavor is to keep me on track and get me going. So feel free to poke me in the eye if I start to lag behind.

Clay Shaper Gallery

Very Truly Yours,
Sally Anne A.K.A. Mud Monkey