Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Ten Years In

I retired from teaching the last week of February in 2005. 30 years of combined state employee and teaching credits 54 years old. I was a teacher of students with multiple disabilities and many abilities. I was dept chair and had great support from my students, their parents, and my employer but it was time to go. I have seen way too many people work until they die or until their bodies are so broken they cannot enjoy their retirement. I had vowed long ago that I would take a different path. I also had developed diabetes, sleep apnea, and had a couple of transient but scary episodes of Atrial Fibrillation I took our new ( first ) camper on a trip down the Blue Ridge, I put new windows in the house. I bought a boat and went fishing. I went to Yosemite and the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival while visiting our son in San Francisco. I visited our daughter in Charlotte. I had a year to spend with my Mom before she passed away. There was time to get her groceries, time to cut the grass, time to take her to the doctor. She passed away in 2006  It was a year well spent. Then I took a clay class.

I had harbored an interest in making pottery for a long time but had never done anything about it. My wife had retired by this time and she was signing up for a jewelry class at the Middletown Art Center.  I asked her to see if they had pottery classes. They did. I started and 8 weeks later, I could center clay effectively and had made a few pots. I was hooked. I was spending a couple of days a week playing in the mud. Had we bombed Afganistan with those pots we would have been out of there years earlier. The pots got better and I kept making. I joined the Clay Alliance and became active in the local clay community. I took workshops and actually stayed in touch with people afterwards. I volunteered for stuff. I started blogging. I didn't see the blog as a way to sell pots but as a social connection and I have met many, many wonderful people both virtually and in person.

The inevitable happened and I started doing shows. There went the free time but it also brought the adventure of a new challenge. Making pots and selling pots are two different skills. You really can't sell crap at any price but even nice work at fair prices takes skills you only learn from experience and being a sponge around friends and mentors.

The other thing that is different is that after being told just to move my lips in music class as a kid I have recently gained the confidence to actually sing out loud and play guitar in front of people that usually takes up most of my non-show Sundays.

OK, enough about me for now. Here are some pictures of current work. Thanks for stopping by.





 

9 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing your clay history! I wasn't sure when you started making pots.
    I really like how the handles sit low on your mugs... and the light blue glaze with the red brushwork evokes memories for me of ceramics and enamelware that my grandmother had in her kitchen, when I was a little girl.

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  2. Wow, great to hear your story of clay, love the contrast of the glaze colors against the clay.

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  3. That'a a great bio for your clay development. I love those mug handles, and the little jars too. You are so right about the two skills of making and selling. Thanks for blogging too (another skill?)

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  4. Enjoyed your story. I remember those WMD pots I made, too.

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  5. I love clay stories. Keep potting.
    Carol McGinnis

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  6. Thanks, love your comments. Michele, every now and then I see a handle that comes above the rim that works. Gay Smith can pull it off but I can't. I think mine balance better in the hand this way and I can alternate tall ones right side up / upside down and get more in a box.

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  7. Is there a secret to that beautiful bright blue on the brown clay body? Nice!

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  8. Yes Anna there is ! I'll send you a FB message.

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  9. I had a very parallel path, ten years ago, took a pottery class, got better, sold some work. And then I hit a wall. Glad to see you haven't hit that wall, its nice for a change to just sit back and to look at other peoples great pottery

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