Pottery

As I’ve mentioned, I take pottery classes every week. Love it. Although I do feel guilty sometimes for how much “Me time” I receive through it. I have been trying to encourage Bryan to do more of the same, but that is a story for another day.

I took pottery classes in college (I was one class shy of a double major in Fine Art) and loved it then. My aunt even gave me her kiln, which has been sitting in my garage for something like 8 years. I just got the gumption to get back into it about 2 years ago and go to a studio where they can keep all the supplies in stock for me, manage the kilns, teach me how to work the clay and generally keep all that dust out of my garage.

Last summer, there seemed to be nobody willing to come and sit next to me in class, so I essentially had private lessons. It was awesome. I got to know my teacher really well and we have become friends too. She is forcing me to go with her to see INXS with their new lead singer in January (she watched, I didn’t), which I must admit feels a bit like seeing the American Idol tour, but since I have loved INXS since my teen and my teacher is a hoot… what the heck, right?

I went through a period earlier this year when about 6 friends (and my sister) had babies… so I made baby name tiles like crazy. The one above was the hardest I made, carving all those circles out! The people at the studio laughed every week when I had a new design in hand to work on the next baby tile.

I love feeling like I am doing something creative, with my hands. At work, I rarely get to do creative work anymore, so pottery is a great outlet for me. It’s also cool to try different things, knowing the clay and the glaze have a mind of their own… they always turn out a bit differently than what I had in my head. But that’s the cool part.