Home improvement

I’ve been going sporadically to the studio, but my passions been in my home again.

Ive made small plates. Yesterday I got to glaze them, hoping to recreate the deep blue green of my test bowl.

I don’t know if I’ll get a chance to make larger plates before I take a class in July. I have a plan and direction in ceramics that differs from other areas of my practice. What started with exploration has become more secure and focused.

I’ve made a small key bowl to put in my entryway, I hope to make it the same blue as I envision the plates.

And I get to mimic other ceramists— like making this berry colander bowl. I’m excited to glaze it red.

fuckin beautiful

Doesn’t quite match the test bowl but damn.

Beauty for beauty’s sake.

unrelated ideas

When I made the bowls, I glazed a test bowl. A mix of blue and pellegreeno. Finding it today on the shelf was such an unknown joy. Joy that felt just right. In my hands I held a little tide pool.

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Last year a group of girls in my classroom would regularly give birth. They held the soft dolls in their small arms, soothing the toys until growing bored and assigning someone to act out the role of baby. They made sense of a new sibling or, in one girls case, twins. Play helped them process.

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My grandmother died in a hurricane. I can say that, the truth isn’t contradictory. My grandmother was on a hospice bed, riddled with cancer of the blood, surrounded by her three children. They bunkered down, for the storm and her end. I thought about that as I drove over tonight.

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this sparks joy

figuring ish out

For a few months I’ve known I’m heading in the right direction. Its just a feeling— that I’m heading in the right direction. I am working on a residency application and if I don’t get it then I’ll work on another application and put my heart into that. I’m pleased by how it’s becoming easier to talk about myself and why I do what I do. Others peoples confusion about the way I work doesn’t feel as overbearing. Other peoples opinions about what I do don’t feel like truths. I made some really beautiful things this week, some of them being conclusions, none of them being fish.

Bowl heavy

I got Sonora white from a free pile. It’s second from the left in the third row.

The clay is so white after bisque but supposedly it’ll yellow after glaze.

I made seven bowls, expecting one or two to be duds. I documented a lot of the process via video. I want to be able to see technique in action. I see people do this in the studio all the time but it felt awkward. Being perceived is hard!

Happy with all the bowls for the most part. I have an old small bowl I’ve been holding onto that I used for a test. Here it is in the background with the glaze combo I used on it.

Im proud of each bowl individually but as a set I’m still unsure how cohesive they’ll be. Time will tell!

What I do with reminders

Make 30 fish

reminders

I go to ceramics because

• it’s play

• you can get lost in the mud of it all

• v hot men and having eye candy is nice

• long days in the classroom means I need to take care of myself more

• glazes don’t make sense and I like a challenge

• I learn a lot from not knowing something formally

• that last one is another benefit of play

• not knowing when pieces will be out

• it forces me to slow down