About that pottery

So I picked up my last batch of fired pieces on Wednesday.  Anyone who has ever played with clay  knows that sometimes what comes out of the kiln is not what you expected or hoped for.  Of course that can lead to wow moments and happy accidents.  Or falling in love with a particular glaze.  Or trying desperately to remember how you did what you did so you can repeat it.  Other times there can be some disappointment.  Too many coats of glaze.  Too much shrinkage while baking in the kiln.  Poor color choice mixtures.  Not having carved deep enough.

Upon seeing my pieces, I felt both elation & chagrin.  Tim reminded me that this my first true class.  "Don't be so hard on yourself."  Funny enough, my teacher said the same thing many times in our class.  She told us that teaching kids is sometimes much more enjoyable than teaching adults because kids rarely disapprove of what they've made.  They're just happy to play and be creative.  Adults, on the other hand, look for perfection and have very high expectations of themselves before the first class even starts.  Oh, how true.  As grownups we just need to lighten up sometimes, don't we?  

Well, I'm going to see what I can make with all of these pottery pieces, good or bad, pretty or so-so.  The plan is to do some embellishing with beads and wire and who knows what else.  Wish me luck.

I went a little crazy with lace, rubber stamps, sgraffito carving & polka dots

Isn't the birdie heart kinda cute?

The red & blue hearts were fun to make & the spearmint glaze rectangle makes me think of carpets

I rolled lace onto the clay when it was wet & later stained it with underglaze

This little guy is perhaps my favorite