A sprint towards the finish line

Pots of Yarn

In the comments of my last post, Carol, (to whom I cannot reply directly as blogger does not seem to make it possible, really and truely, one of these days I will move the blog elsewhere, but I will need a lot of wine), anyway, I digress, Carol asked me about my pots. I refer to myself as "potter" in my sidebar but really this is something of an untruth at the moment as in fact I haven't made a pot for 3 years. I have a very antiquated and enormous kiln which has spent 3 years sitting in a storage container. When we first moved up here we lived with my Mother in-law and there was nowhere for my kiln to go, we moved here a year ago and there is a large shed but a very narrow path and some steps make it virtually impossible to get the kiln to the shed and even if we did there is some doubt as to the strength of the floor. So I remain a potter in waiting. I hope to perhaps sell the old kiln and buy one of these newfangled lighter weight kilns.

I really miss making pots. I discovered ceramics about nine or ten years ago when I began an evening class while still living in London. I was lucky, it was a really good class, fairly unstructured, lots of encouragement for everyone to do their own thing and I was immediately fired with enthusiasm. When we moved out of London I tried several other classes but found them all very lacking, too often aimed at complete beginners and very restricting. Then I saw an old kiln advertised and hey presto, the beginnings of a very steep learning curve. I struggled with the chemistry of glazes and firing but eventually began to find sucessful recipes and combinations. I was lucky enough to begin selling the odd pot and knew that this was what I really wanted to do when babies became a little less demanding.

My pots are mostly handbuilt, although just before we moved I had begun to teach myself throwing. I love the slow, organic process of handbuilding, I feel really intouch with what I am making. I usually start with an idea but often find the clay takes me somewhere else once I begin. Although I haven't been able to make a pot for three years there is hardly a day goes by that I don't think about pots and I have a notebook crammed full of ideas and drawings. I would love to perhaps investigate the possibility of a full time ceramics course in the future, maybe when the children are both in full time school although that will depend on logistics of course.

In the mean time I continue to day dream about pots, collect pots and fill pots with yarn......