Pottering Around

Thanks for the warm welcome back to blogging!

Over the weekend, I blogged about an outstanding 4 hour pottery class.

I was surprised that a few of you thought I should explore pottery further. Even though I loved the class, pottery doesn't call to me the way weaving does.

Maybe it's because I really, really dislike getting my hands wet or messy.....I'd rather bake than cook. I hate cleaning. Pottery is full of messy hands.....so it's fun, but I'm sticking with weaving and maybe exploring other visual arts for now.

My vase

I did like Deanna's idea to use the pottery to inspire things to weave to go with it!!! Maybe by the time the pots are glazed and returned to me, I'll have one of my looms freed up for a new project and I'll be inspired by something from pottery class!!

Or maybe I'll just enjoy the four hour experience and let it enrich my life without having to do anything further with it at all....well, except for eating ice cream out of each of the three bowls at some point. How's that for a goal?!

Inspiring Work from Fire Pond Pottery

In answer to Deanna's question, we did get to choose from 3 glaze colors: brown, blue and emerald green. I think I chose 2 blues, 1 green and 1 half blue/half green glaze for my 4 pieces. At the top of the picture above, you can see our glaze possibilities on plain blue, plain emerald and plain brown samples.

Now we have to be patient, since the Fire Pond Potters said it might take up to 3 months to get the pots back!!

I promise to post pictures, and if you come by the house, I'll even serve you ice cream in one of the bowls!!

Potter for a Day

I had so much fun today!!

Jim, our friend D, and I took a "Learn to Throw in One Day" pottery class at Exeter Fine Crafts in Exeter, NH, USA, with Larry and Jessica of Fire Pond Pottery.

Even though Jim, D and I all learn in different ways, all of us loved the class and were really pleased with the whole day.

Our class had 6 students, 3 of whom had taken the class once before. I was so amazed at how much we were able to make and at HOW FUN the whole day was.


You can see my progression of 3 bowls in the center of this picture, and then my vase. The work right near mine is Jim's.

I also had a bowl attempt that collapsed, and at the end I tried to make two tiny bowls....both of which also didn't work. (One did that spectacular failure where all of a sudden it flies off the potter's wheel. Kind of fun really!)

The Fire Pond Potters will take our pieces and finish them up, including glazing and firing them. I'll show you pictures as soon as I get the pieces back. (It might not be until summer....but for once it won't be due to my blog laziness.....it will be waiting for their kiln to fill up.)


I cannot say enough good things about this class.

I loved how the teachers explained and demonstrated things just enough, and then turned us loose. They were right there to help if we were having trouble, or if we asked for help, but they also weren't jumping in telling people what they were doing wrong or anything like that.

They were totally great about asking if you wanted help and never touching your work or giving you advice unless you asked for it. (I love that.....I've been known to get quite annoyed in classes where a teacher is on top of my work too much!)

Also, they were very generous with information, and with setting up the day so that we all got to work on the wheels for hours.

If you're in the area and you've ever thought about trying pottery, this is a great way to give it a whirl. Low commitment, low cost, fun.

They've got another class scheduled for next Saturday, April 9. There may still be spaces left, so look for info at Exeter Fine Crafts. (I'd phone them ASAP about next Saturday.) I you want to be on Larry and Jessica's email list so they can notify you when they set up a class, you can contact them through their website.

Colors of January

This month, there's no avoiding snow and ice as I take pictures of color combinations found in nature.

It's getting more and more difficult to find hints of color outside, as the palette of the world around me shifts toward white and wintry.

I'd love to see the color combinations in the natural world around you!!

Icicle

Seaweed

Ice on the Oyster River

Snow-covered furrows

Birch

Rose hips and the Lamprey River

Mallards

If you want to join in the fun, it's easy:

• Post photos of the colors in nature this month on your blog - linking back to this post so your guests can find everyone else's entries
• Put a link to your post in this MckLinky list, including your location!!

The list will be open until February 1. Can't wait to see the colors where you live!



Previous months:
Colors of December
Colors of November
Colors of Late October

Welcome January

New Year, New Decade.....both off to a good start. Hopefully that's true for you as well!

In December (that old year and old decade) 13 bloggers took photos of the Colors of December.

For the past few months, we've been exploring the natural colors where we live and sharing them once a month as creative inspiration.

Thanks so much for participating! If you haven't had a chance, check out the Colors of December around the world.

Delighted Hands in Florida

Mike in New Hampshire

Leigh at Five Acres and a Dream in the Carolinas

Margreet from Woodyarn in the Netherlands

Annie from Weaverannie Knits and Spins in Holland

Colleen from Penny-Wise People in New Hampshire

Sharon from In Stitches in Nevada

Theresa from Camp Runamuck in Oregon

Tina from A Blip on the Radar in Washington

Evelyn Oldroyd with two entries in Canada

Nina from Odette's Obsessions in Ontario

Charlotte from Strikke Og Vevebloggen north of the polar circle in Norway


I successfully avoided using any pictures with snow last month. But this month promises to be much whiter....I can safely say there will be snow in the Colors of January where I live.

View out the back window

I'll post my January colors later this month, and hopefully some of you will find inspiring colors in your neighborhood too!

Finding Time: An Update

Apparently I have a lot to say these days. Here comes a long photo-less post on a Saturday night. I promise I'm not trying to torture you!! (And I will have photos tomorrow!)

I want to post an update on how I'm finding time for creativity these days.

New Schedule

When we got home from vacation in October, I started a new schedule to make sure I was creative each week.

The main parts of my plan were to have 2 design sessions a week, and to work as a production assistant (to myself) for an hour first thing in the morning 5 days a week.

How has it gone?

Short Version

Great!

I'm really happy with this division of time and tasks. I'm in my studio more often. I'm producing more work. I feel like it's a good balance of cranking out work, stretching my design skills and solving tough problems.

The past two weeks have been a real test of my plan. A holiday week like Thanksgiving obviously has schedule disruptions, but I still fit in my creative time.

During the week that's just ending, there was a death in Jim's family. We traveled a bit for the wake and funeral. But I still fit in my creative time. (I didn't keep up with people very well via email or my blog, but I was able to keep my studio commitment to myself and I'm happy about that.)

I feel more confident that if this scheme can work in weeks like the past two, it has a good chance of working until spring. (And if my friends and blog buddies can stand it, hopefully I'll also be able to keep in touch with them!)

Morning Sessions as Production Assistant

The morning sessions were hardest for me to get into, but now they're my favorite part of this plan. At first, I faced the task of weaving 4 more towels on a huck warp, then hemming them. Particularly during the hemming phase, I wasn't exactly excited.

The beauty of this scheme is that I don't have to be excited. I just have to do it. I don't have to be the most efficient, the best, inspired. I just have to sit down and get to work for an hour. No thinking. No questioning. No wondering. Cranking out work. Definitely "Less thinking, more weaving!"

It's working for me. I've really come to enjoy it. The pluses of that morning time are that when I first get up, the house is quiet and my brain is still partially asleep. The hour drifts by even if I'm doing a part of a project that I don't enjoy. My rules of not questioning and just doing whatever comes next keep me focused and make the time more relaxing. If something really doesn't work, I set it aside until my next design session, and move on to something that is working.

By Monday most weeks I look forward to that hour....I do try to spend Mon - Friday mornings that way....but sometimes life gets in the way and it gets pushed off til the weekend.

Design Sessions

My design sessions are a mixture of fun, challenging and hard for me. I am in a rhythm of enjoying that focused time and working on whatever problems I'm trying to solve.

So far I've designed the scarf warp you've heard so much about. Plus I have a secret Christmas project on my other loom, and another project ready for sampling.

I also did my calculations for my two days of dyeing during the design sessions. (I did manage to wind the skeins and actually do the dyeing during other time - not impinging on my studio schedule.)

It's fitting that I'm posting this today since I just had a great design session. I started weaving the first scarf on my 1st-Time-at-WEBS scarf warp. I also figured out what was going wrong on my secret Christmas project. I can start weaving first thing Monday with both projects in good shape.

Right now designing is so new to me that I have trouble keeping my "production assistant" busy with production all of the time. On off days when both projects are stuck, tasks like cleaning the studio, sorting and cleaning all the Texsolv parts of my Toika loom, and cleaning up a gift of shuttles and books easily fill the hour.

I hope that as I get better as a designer, I'll keep my production time productive, and be able to tackle some of the odds and ends that are on the back burner for now.

I guess I'm not really sticking with my "Less Thinking, More Weaving" motto. It's more like, weave in the mornings, think twice a week.

In reality, spending this much time with weaving means that I have great ideas when I'm driving around or out running....my list of different projects I want to do grows and grows. I love that idea phase of weaving (or of anything) the best.

Things Being Neglected

Last time I posted about finding time, a number of people talked about housework. Um, yeah. When I neglect weaving, it's definitely not because I'm doing too much housework!! We don't live in filth, but if I have to schedule time for weaving, I definitely have to schedule time for cleaning and such!

Knitting has kind of fallen off the schedule which isn't great. I have 5 projects on the needles and I need to get back to my knitting group ASAP. I'm such a social knitter! I've just had major schedule conflicts for the past month or so.

I do feel like other things that are important to me are getting short shrift....mostly keeping in touch with friends and relaxing, but hopefully as I get used to working this way, I'll get better at fitting in the things that matter most to me.

The fruits of my labor will be more apparent soon - which will boost my confidence and trust in this plan even more.

Hope you're having a creative December too!!

Creative Risks: What is Risky for Me?

When I think about obstacles to weaving, two of mine are making time and handling creative risks.

Last time I blogged about creative risks, I shared a poem on an evening when I'd slammed into the problem with my scarf warp. Your responses were really interesting to me, particularly because my post was so vague. No one knew whether I was talking about weaving-related risks or other risks in life.

Thank you all for the great scarf advice. I'll be putting it into practice later this week and I'll definitely be blogging about it so we can all see how it comes out!!

Over the last week, as I've tried to figure out what's next with my scarf, I've also tried to look at my attitudes and emotions around this project. Hopefully I can change the attitudes that are holding me back.


What makes a project feel risky to me?

Not all projects feel risky to me.

Risky:

• A project where I really care about the outcome - where I have an idea of how I want it to come out, rather than just seeing what happens
• Precious yarn - scarce, expensive, unusual, or with an unusual emotional attachment (like this most recent scarf)
• Diving in way over my head technically so I have trouble figuring out what to do almost every time I work on it

Not risky:

• Projects in a workshop lead by a teacher with a group of students
• Following a design in Handwoven
• Samples being done to study a weave structure or new technique
• Warp where I'm OK with it just not working out - somewhat indifferent to the project (although I try never to start projects like that - I like to be passionate about what I do - even when passion is exhausting!)

This latest project, with it's limited quantity of discontinued yarns, with the yarn all coming from a special visit to a special yarn store, has the yarn risk. It also has the strong feeling about the outcome element of risk. Technically, there's also some risk since I'm not sure I understand specifically what weave structure to use.

Bailey scratches this rug into a pile when he's frustrated

What's at risk for me?

Well, there's always the question of yarn and time. I worry more about time than about yarn....because I have a lot of yarn!!! I never have enough time to do all the things I want to do.

Another risk is the emotional energy it takes to do a project, especially a risky project. I don't always have the emotional energy to spare.

The big risk for me however, is that feeling stalled or blocked or technically stymied makes me very frustrated. My typical pattern with projects that aren't working out, is to flit to the next project. Then, when I have about 10 projects all stalled and stuck, I give up entirely on doing anything creative or artistic. Sometimes for years.

Doesn't exactly help with my goal of being a prolific weaver!

When I tackle something that I know is risky, I have to make sure I have the emotional energy to fight through my frustrations. Plus, I need to work out a creative process where I can troubleshoot problems in projects and avoid that stuck, blocked, permanently stalled state.

But getting into that state is the big risk to me at this point.



Times when I've taken risks

I'm definitely fine with the level of risks versus safety in my life in general. I'm less adventurous in my kayak or on the hiking trail than Jim (my husband and favorite outdoor companion), but I'm OK with where I am on that risk-taking scale.

I've done adventurous things like travel, move (twice) to a new part of the country where I didn't know anyone, change careers, buy a book and a loom and teach myself to weave. I can take risks.

I'm just not quite where I want to be with working my way through roadblocks in weaving projects, and I want find the right level of risk taking for me with my creative projects.