I love experimenting. Asking myself the question: What if? Taking out a material I've never tried and trying it. Combining an old technique with a new to me process. Catching a whiff of an idea and following it.
It's thrilling. And scary.
The thrill of unloading a kiln full of new porcelain pieces is something, 5 years ago, I'd never dreamed I could do. I'd had a bad clay experience in my past and I was afraid of more failure. I went back to school and learned more but I was still scared. Until one day, while folding wash, I saw I had a choice. Choose fear and fold up my dreams or feel the thrill of throwing clay anyway. I put the clothes down and picked up my clay.
I'm still throwing and I love it. Yes, I've had my share of cracked pots alongside beautiful bowls.
I love drinking coffee in my own mugs and putting candy in my own porcelain bowls. But I'm not an expert or a production potter, and frankly, that's ok with me. Because while my hands are busy throwing or hand building, my imagination begins to spin. Questions come up and ideas peek out waving at me.
What if? How about trying this? Or why is that?
So I throw a bottom and hand build a top and it's a vase.
I take my favorite leaf form and try out a sculpture idea.
I challenge myself to learn how to make a long, narrow neck vase. And then I cut it off and make different shape.
I've got many experiments that may never come out of my studio closet. But that's ok, too. Because this isn't about success or failure, this is about the thrill of following an idea wherever it leads me. Some might call that fickleness or folly but I call it fun.
And the biggest surprise? Is that years later, the experiments in that closet turn out to be just the right solution to a new problem.
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