Author Archives: timouth

The hands of fate

Tonight I started glazing a new bunch of jars and bottles. I can’t say that any one part of the pottery process is more fun than another. It just takes a long time to get to the glazing, and then that final firing when the truth is revealed. The big payoff or heartbreak comes when the kiln cools and I see who they turned out to be. I learn something new with each round. I’m doing something similar to last time, but maybe more simplified. And this time I don’t have all those expectations about exactly what they will look like. I try to predict what the glaze will do, of course. I have to have a reason for applying it the way I do. But then I must leave it in the hands of fate.  

I wish I could forget what I did and why, so the results will just be what they are.  I also want to remember exactly what I did, so I can replicate those wonderful surprises that appear around or in spite of what I have contrived. 

Please don’t

Please don’t ever tell a kid they were lucky to be adopted. No kid is lucky to lose their parents. No kid is lucky to wonder what was wrong with them, or what they didn’t do to keep their family together.

People choose to adopt.  Kids would never choose it. 

We all have trauma in our lives. Kids in foster care or adoptive familes have all that normal, difficult stuff plus a whole lot more. 

I’m the lucky one who got to have them in my life. They weren’t lucky to need me in theirs. 

Please don’t tell a foster or adoptive parent that they are a saint. I know people mean well.  We’re just people who wanted to be parents. Maybe we couldn’t do it the way a lot of other parents did.

Adoption can be a very good thing. It can meet needs for kids and for adults. It’s not easy. It’s not perfect. They’re not lucky. We’re not heroes. 

Sykli

There is a lengthy cycle to making pottery. You throw the pot, then let it dry for a few days. When it is bone dry, you bisque fire it, and wait for the kiln to cool. You glaze the pots, and when they are dry, you load them back into the kiln. After glaze firing, you wait for them to cool again.

How they look in the end is a result of your actions, but you can never be sure how they will come out.

The cycle is much shorter in acrylic painting. You prep your canvas and apply the paint. It dries pretty quickly, and you can go back in and change things. 

I wanted my recent pots to look like acrylic paintings, but done in stoneware glaze. As a result, I was unhappy when I saw the finished pieces. It wasn’t that they looked particularly bad, it’s just that they looked different than I thought they would. 

So I learned a lot from that attempt.  I will bring this experience to the next batch of pots.

When I try too hard, I rarely succeed. I want to throw larger pots. I began having some success when I told myself I’m just making a planter for my new sunroom. That took the pressure off.  

Odotus

Color is a perceived hue.  It is nothing more than a label that the brain uses.

Last night I couldn’t wait to open the kiln in the morning.  I had an idea of how I expected the pieces to look.  When I finally was able to open it up, I was disappointed!  I texted my friend that they were ugly.

I think the problem was that I had a preconceived idea of how everything would look.  I had never used these glazes before.

I just left the pieces in the basement and went back to bed.  A couple of hours later, I took pictures of them to send to her, and I began to think they didn’t actually look so bad.  Once again, it was a problem of expectation.  Very few things can live up to our expectations.  It’s a wonderful thing when we see something beautiful in a place or at a time when we never expected anything at all.  The wonders of life just unfold and we perceive them as they are, not how we thought they should or might be.

They are what they are.

Tonight, I have another glaze firing underway.  I am not obsessing.  I waited to see how the previous group came out before making any necessary changes in applying the glaze.  I don’t know how they will look tomorrow.  They will be what they will be, too.

Glaze is not like acrylic paint.  You can’t just apply it and know how it will look in its final form.  It’s chemistry.  By trying it out, you can get a better idea of what will happen in the heat of the kiln, but there is always that mystery.