Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Acceptance

I've been struggling with my schedule and overall energy level lately specifically when it comes to finding the time to fit in my pottery. I think I'm finally over feeling guilty that I don't get to the studio every day or even sometimes for days on end. And when the weekends have rolled around, I'm beginning to let go of the expectation that I will spend a solid 8 hour day working. It's times like these I have to remind myself that I work all day four days a week and that can often take a lot out of me. Add quitting coffee and making some other lifestyle changes.
So instead of feeling overwhelmed each time I enter my creative space to see pots that need glazing, others that need to be photographed, and much more smaller projects that are equally time consuming, I am going to take a deep breath and just work at a slower and much more reasonable pace. If I can only fill my kiln and fire every few months instead of planning on a kiln a month (my kiln is huge!) then so be it. I'm rediscovering the joy of the creative process and seeing I was still in the mindset of pushing through tons of work like I had to in college. It never was a method that particularly appealed to me, and it took years of pushing myself at an unreasonable pace at times to learn this. Starting this spring, I am going to pay more attention to my other interests such as gardening, yoga and traveling while trying to strike a healthy balance of day job work, making pottery, and enjoying more leisure time. Luckily I crossed off taking photos from my list and will be filling my etsy shop back up. And it seems as though my coffee addiction is wearing off a bit with the help of tea and chocolate.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Welcome spring

Happy Spring everyone! The snow has finally melted and the sure sign of spring is making itself known in my yard... yes crocuses are starting to bloom.I also am feeling my need to hibernate slowly fade away. It's not that I haven't been busy both in and out of the studio. The end of February, I volunteered at the Women's Studio Workshop's Annual Chili Bowl Sale. It is a super fun event. People from the area who have been feeling the effects of cabin fever come out for a day of music and chili donated from lots of local restaurants. And it is a great time for me to get out of my solitary studio and chat with old and new friends. My social butterfly tendencies needed a release I guess, after 5 or so hours, my voice was pretty hoarse. Not sure how many bowls sold, but the day started with over 900 and the tables looked pretty sparse by the evening.
In my studio, I have been picking up the pace a bit. My shelves are packed with work in all different stages of completion. At the time of this pic, I needed to fire a bisque. That's done now, and I have lots of glazing and photographing to do. So that means I really will be posting on etsy and filling up my shop this weekend.