Clay and pottery has always fascinated me. My first real experience with potter’s clay was in a summer craft program with the Palo Alto Junior Museum when I was barely a teen.
In my late twenties I was lucky enough to be invited to share a neighbor’s kiln. Hand building was enough to start with and I still find plenty of ways to build without a wheel. I took a night class at Foothill Jr. College with a very “free” and provocative artist whose own idols were at the forefront of ceramic art at the time. This was the ’60s in California in the Hippie/Flower Children era when ceramics was “far out” and “funky”…and loads of fun!
Eventually we moved to Washington and purchased our own kiln and wheel. Many years of Ceramics Monthly, stacks of library books and thirty-something long wet winters and springs have inspired much creativity. I am still learning the particular properties of clay and what it can and cannot do. Despite my production of a great deal of questionable “rubble,” my brothers and sisters always seemed to like what I was doing and kept me trying.
My biggest thrill now is to visualize something that I want to make and actually meet or excel my own expectations. The burst of JOY at opening the kiln after a long night of waiting for the kiln to cool down is like Christmas morning, again and again…and if I can make someone else light up and even laugh when they see what I have done, then I know I have been successful.
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