good morning.
Y'all, I feel like April just almost did me in. It was truly the month in which I could not, did not, keep up. Didn't keep up with my daily drawings (I stopped mid-month). Didn't keep up with pottery (tried to, but). Didn't keep up with friends. Retreated and got frustrated and angry and had to have a big fat time out. Last week we had a large discussion around the dinner table about taking ownership of your decisions and their outcomes and just making the best of what you're left with in the aftermath of your decisions, good or bad. No whining, no blaming, just taking what's in front of you and making the best you/life/decision you can with what you have. Ownership. So I'm moving on from April because it's the second week of May. No more dwelling on failed pots or plans or anything else that happened that I can't do anything about. Moving on. I'm able to move forward in part because of the support and encouragement of so many of y'all- two emails over the weekend, in particular, were especially encouraging when I was ready to just throw in the towel. So thank you, especially, Richard and Gail. And you countless other friends who have been thinking good thoughts and sending me well wishes and saying nice things when I whine in public forums. It means a lot.
I did have a long long chat this morning with the technician at Standard Ceramics company, one of the largest clay manufacturers in the country and the maker of most of the clay bodies I use, including my favorite that suddenly seemed to go haywire on me. Julie was wonderful. She is sending me a new clay to test and is testing my old favorite with the glazes that had been giving me the most problems. I can't even tell you how grateful I am that she took my questions seriously and is helping me to find solutions to either making my old clay and glazes work or finding a new go-to clay body.
Today it is raining and I am glazing and firing a little load of herb markers and those pieces I made with Mississippi river clay inlay.
Hope your week is off to a good start.
4 comments:
There's something meditative about your mugs. I love using them. They bring me joy. They give me comfort. They make me smile.
I would love to have a white (or french vanilla) mug w a little Mississippi mud inlay. What's that look like i dunno?
you're in the flow!
isn't wonderful customer service, well, just wonderful?
My amazing and talented dear Sister, I cannot tell you how much you and your beautiful, inspirational craftswomanship means to me. I am in agony today, over so many things; the physical pain today being the worst after another day of medical tumult. Your "hope is the thing with feathers" tumbler keeps me from falling apart as I sip tea from it. It's a gift from God, as you are such a precious gift from God for all of us. I want to thank you for your diligence and persistence in the face of great frustration, challenge, and loss of work, time, money, bits of sanity. As a writer, I understand the ultimate loss of the work upon which you labor when it comes out needing a good trashing, but I can rewrite and do not have to hunt down the alchemical answers as you do. You amaze and grace me and my husband with a life raft of literal, practical, and soulful hope through your pottery every day. I never could thank you enough for your endurance and fierce dedication. I do not know how I would have gotten through these last several months without you and your elegant art. If there is anything or any way I may assist you or alleviate frustrations in any arena, never hesitate to call upon me, love. I'm sippin' my hope tea always ready to answer: 'here I am!' I love you so much.
I always think its important during difficult times to feel as though your progressing. Even if its just a tiny bit towards your goal everyday.
Good luck!
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