knowing that you are a flower, opening

I have watched the flower buds unfold this year. In spring, the tulips and daffodils slowly unfolded, showing a bit more color each day, incrementally, taking weeks to fully bloom. Now that it is summer, in the warm sun and soft rain, poppies, peonies and lilies that were tight balls the night before are wide open the next morning. And I think we are all flowers, too, bringing forth our unique thoughts, our softest emotions, our true art, more readily when the world around us is warm and welcoming.

Here are some of what’s been blooming in my garden and studio:

 

 

All pottery is available at Lee Wolfe Pottery.com

Battle of the bowls

My eye is drawn to pattern and so the flower shaped bowl, with its complex symmetry, has become a signature form. The second bowl is the flower bowl just before the rim is altered into the waves. Something inside me has been wanting to stop there. So, in the middle of my busiest season, I took  time out to throw 4 of each.

There is no clear winner yet. The flower bowls sold out faster but those who bought the round ones loved them a lot.

When you love pottery as I do, certain pieces appear as if I've been searching for them a long time only I've just remembered that I lost it. They feel both utterly new and utterly familiar all at once. Both bowls evoked this type of reaction, so I don’t know if I should choose just 1 to continue, even though that is far more practical.

Which do you like better?

Cover Girl

I received so many appreciative and encouraging replies to my interview with Handmadeology, which was first published on Marketing Creatively. Thanks, Lisa! It is an honor and pleasure to have my interview  chosen for the April cover.

Pottery is a path of irony in that shaping clay day after day shapes you. Centering the clay on a wheel centers you. The zone of pottery making requires a zen attention to mastery of simple tasks. It is no wonder that success, as a potter, is rich in intangibles, and financially modest. My stepsons have BA’s and are on fine career paths. My daughter will be attending a private university, thanks partially to my pottery income and that of her own. I own a home furnished with fine art and collectibles, with gardens and views that are daily gifts of inspiration. My marriage is happy.

I wake up most days eager to explore a bit of new territory with clay. It’s a good life, overall.

I’ve been eating my staging props

In order to show the size of my pottery, I've been using food as staging props. I scour the produce and bakery sections for food that looks good. I've gotten quite anal about it, actually.

I know I’m starting to sound eccentric in the grocery, but when I saw these great looking radishes, I picked through every bunch to get the perfect color. It sort of annoyed another woman, but hey! I need my radishes to be bright RED, ya know?!

I’m glad that Valentine’s Day has passed. Because my diet has gotten healthier. How would you like to have this on your counter staring at you after you’ve used it for staging?

Dragonflies, symbols of joy

Here's my finished Dragonfly Mug in my Blue Sky glaze with Turquoise Waters at the bottom. These were originally designed for Gallery of the Mountains inside the Grove Park Inn here in Asheville, to be offered for sale during their yearly Arts and Crafts show in February.

When I first unloaded the heat soaked, pinging pots from the kiln, and set them on my work table to admire, a real dragonfly flew into my studio and landed, delicately poised, on my wrist. And out of the countless times I've written in my Etsy descriptions that "dragonflies are symbols of joy and transformation", this one moment when a real dragonfly came to witness with me the unloading of my stoneware dragonfly mugs shattered my world, and real joy flooded in. I mean real joy, the kind that lights a smile involuntarily, unlike the concept of joy as in when I write copy and spew out the word. It stayed on my wrist a long time, as I eased myself onto my stool to contemplate these new dragonfly mugs. Then, not wanting it to become trapped inside, I carefully rose and walked out by the hostas, where it took off in shimmering blue flight.

Mugs, in progress

Things are not drying in my studio, and that is never good. So today I'm taking 60 pots out into the sun *hello, sun* to dry out so that I can bisque fire tonight. The first 24 of these very Arts and Craft style mugs sold to a gallery hours after they came out of my kiln, and I'm itchy to finish some more and list them on Etsy. I love everything about them- the balance on the narrow pedestal footrim works because they are very thin and the waist is low. The arch of the handles is just right. I get this by pulling straight away from the mug, thinning the handle towards the bottom, attaching it at the widest lower point, and then setting the mug upside down so that gravity forms the arc. I also like the way that the dragonfly sits on the facets so that the gesture of the facets suggests the dragonfly wings.

I have obsessed over mugs more than any other form in my 33 years as a potter. It is the piece that I make the least profit on for my time, so a more sensible person might just throw a zillion cylinders, slap extruded handles on, and take nice vacations occasionally. But since I am not that person,I wake up nights with ideas for tweaking my mugs, and follow the muses wherever they whisper to go. It's what I do.

just unloaded

These all came out of my last kiln load late last night. I'm very happy with the faceted bowls, the stamped trays, and my lovely Aqua and Seafoam glazes which, for the first time, did not run off the pots and onto the kiln shelves. This small advance alone gave me a full night of peaceful sleep! I love those glazes, but they are high maintenance. And yes, my studio is this messy, except when its even more messy.

The jewelry components are a series I've been planning using sacred imagery. The little heads are Tara, the female Buddha. I saw a dance performance last year called Dances of Tara, and was quite moved by the sense of compassion and unconditional love. There is also a seated Buddha and two Celtic Knots. Today I get to actually hang out in clean clothes and make jewelry. This is a real change of pace for a potter. Can't wait to pull out my gazillion trays of beads and cords!

Success

After two months of screwing up pots and not getting what I want, I'm starting to get some wonderful new pieces! Here is a faceted pot in Tenmoku and Black Tea Dust glazes. I love everything about this small vase- the subtle ridges in the facets, the glaze flow and fit, the shape. Buyers are coming in two weeks, and I am down to the wire to get enough of these pots glazed and ready to sell.

My Aqua, Tidal Pool Blue and Green Tea glazes are still unpredictably running, but the last kiln load had more successes than failures. Yayyyyy!

After 30 years as a potter, I have enough technical prowess to knock out the same ole same ole with precision but its just not in me to do that. I like adventure, and exploring off the beaten path, and so onward I go.

The journey is the destination.

Seconds

C

You know that thrill of sending the tennis ball over the net perfectly and powerfully, and exactly as you had envisioned it? Or crafting an important speech, practicing it, and then hearing applause, enthusiasm, and agreement as you finish? This is what I feel as I crack open each kiln load and see my first glimpse of a flawless beauty. I can't help it, my spirits just soar! There is about another hour to go before I reach in and pull my treasure out of its journey through fire, and I get to bask in the euphoria for that duration. And mostly, after full examination, the pot is still as pleasing. At other times I am like that woman in an action film who has just succeeded in outsmarting the Very Bad Thing, only to have it spring back to life. Despair and dissappointment engulf me, and I see a small but unmistakable bubble in the glaze, or glaze that has flowed right off the pot at the bottom, or a bare spot, an underfired spot, a crack. The pot is now a second, even if it is still quite beautiful and functional. If you are not a potter, you can only imagine how crazy we all are from this roller coaster ride of mastering clay and then even thinking for a moment that we have actually mastered glazes!

Generally, we get over it and sell the bubbled, blistered, slightly flawed pieces as seconds, and someone else is, as a rule, completely charmed by having a piece that exemplifies the handmade process, and for such a great price! The Tidal Blue pitcher and Dragonfly Lantern shown above are now listed on my Etsy store. They are seconds, they are bargains, and they are the reason I will always remain less than arrogant about my prowess as a master potter!

Here are more seconds from my Mud Team friends- more in comments, too:

Pat's Pottery

Clay Crazy Pottery

Earth Elements