Who loves pottery? Who has ever wanted to throw pottery? Who thinks sitting at a pottery wheel spinning a glob of clay into a beautiful vase sounds romantic? Me!!! I had been hanging on to a discounted pottery class certificate that I purchased from a local radio station; it was about to expire and the time couldn’t have been any more convenient for me to take advantage of it as its location was right in Rhinebeck where I now lived. I called up the owner and inquired about how to use the certificate and make an appointment to come in for my private lesson. We chatted on the phone for a little while and somehow something was said and we realized that we knew each other; not only was she excellent at pottery, she was also an excellent photographer and I had taken a photography class that she taught a few years back. Small world. I had always wanted to learn to throw pottery and I was excited about finally getting my chance. If you’ve never tried it, it’s hard. Yep, it is not as easy as it looks. I managed to get a bowl from that class but was so determined to get better at it that I signed up to be a member. During the first several months of living in my new apartment I spent hours, week after week, at that pottery studio, throwing clay and getting creative. I had friends that were getting married and they kindly commissioned me to make 100 tiny little bowls that they could give as gifts to each of their wedding guests. That was one crazy undertaking on my behalf, but I managed to somehow pull it off. Half of them were thrown on the wheel and half of them were hand-pinched. I got tired of making bowls and decided to get creative and make some other things… a whale, a turtle, a cute little elf on a snowball. Eventually I had my fill of clay creations and was up to my eyeballs in pottery that I had no idea what to do with; every single person I knew got something as a gift whether they wanted it or not. I just couldn’t see continuing to spend the money (it’s not cheap), but it felt really good to be creative again and it helped me transition into this next chapter of my life.
Have YOU thrown pottery?
It was a lot of fun and a lovely walk down memory lane to go back and hunt for the pictures that I took during my pottery days, I had forgotten about so many of the pieces that I made.
Here we have a photo of many of the tiny bowls that I made for my friend's wedding reception, my smiling whale (that I still have), "Sisters" that I made for my sister for Christmas that year, a horse bowl that I made for a friend for Christmas that year, a turtle that you can put a votive candle underneath (gave that to a friend), and my cute little elf dude sitting on a white snowball... I put him out at Christmas.