“Let the beauty we love be what we do.” ~Rumi
Once long ago, someone asked me if I wasn’t a musician what would I be? In an instant I blurted, “I’d be a potter!” Where did THAT come from? It was perhaps an intuitive answer. It’s not as if I admired and studied pottery for years and years before I decided to try it out. Sometimes I wonder if I made pots in a past life.
I took my first pottery class in 1986 or thereabouts, because I was a little bored. My boyfriend was jealous of the fact that I was in a band, that I had rhythm and could play a few musical instruments. Couple that with the irritating position of actually being IN a band (it’s like a dysfunctional family at times, especially when you’re in your twenties), I was ready to put my guitar in its case and tuck it away for a few years. That’s when I started taking pottery classes. I like creating things with my hands. Creating beauty – whether its playing music, making pottery, or something crocheted, knitted, sewn or grown, it’s what I do.
I took classes for about a year or so and eventually left my boyfriend because no matter what I did he seemed to find fault with me. I felt free to take up my guitar once again and I began writing songs. A time came when I put away all of my clay things because the business side of growing a music career took so much time and energy. It was a time of deal making, finding gigs to play and networking for hours upon hours each day. As time passed it didn’t feel creative anymore at all. I didn’t even have time to write songs. Eventually the business side of the music industry made me shudder and wince and I finally gave it up when I stubbed my toe on a bag of clay in my friend’s kitchen and began to work the soft brown stuff with my hands re-discovering my creativity.
Yesterday while in the pottery studio making Matcha tea bowls for La Brulerie, a specialty food shop and coffee roasting house in Hull on St. Joseph, I thought about Japanese tea ceremonies and their beauty. I thought about rituals and celebrations and how food and drink are usually involved. I’ve always felt that the pottery is as much of a work of art as the food that goes into the pottery, so when people tell me they are not creative I like to point out that the food they cook is art; that the table they dress for a meal is art. They stop and reflect.
I hope you find some time today to reflect on your own creativity. Seeing as how the New Year has begun my wish for you is that you will find something that moves you into a place where you can practise creativity.
Freshly made raw Matcha tea bowls
Raw finished Matcha tea bowl with "LM" stamped on foot ring.
Beautiful thoughts- beautiful bowls!
For years I though because I don’t draw or sing well or play an instrument that I was not a creative person but now I find my creative outlet every day in cooking and gardening and arranging flowers and creating a beautiful home.
Thank you, my friend.
Thanks Elizabeth. Keep on creating great food and beautiful gardens!
being all practical and such… I love that you made a signature stamp to use on your work!
It looks so professional, eh??
I’ve also never understood people who say they have no creativity who when you walk into their home you instantly feel welcome, who when you sit at their table serve you the perfect cup of tea, who after a wonderful conversation come away feeling renewed and inspired. Creativity’s definitions are so much more broad than “the arts” that it is simply hard for people to trust their own creativity. If you can learn the alphabet you can write a poem. If you can count you can learn to crochet. It sometimes looks like magic…even feels like magic because creativity comes from that side of the brain that out culture values less than the analytical side of the brain.
I think we use both sides of our brains, but like the ex-boyfriend we don’t always understand or value that creative side. I add my wish to yours. May the exploration of creativity be a goal this New Year! And LM, great blog!!!
A
Thanks Ardriana! xoxo
your work is so beautiful! i got a small battery powered wheel when i was in highschool, after working with clay in art class, i was so bummed it didn’t work! i also used to dig clay out of the river banks of our ‘family river’ when i was a kid, always wished i could bake the things i made, clay is such a wonderful and earthy thing!!
Can you imagine what it was like when the first pieces of pottery were probably “accidentally cooked” in the ancient peoples’ camp fires? You don’t necessarily need a kiln to fire a pot. I once did a pit firing and still to this day there are potters who cook their wares in outdoor ovens!
What an awesome feeling it must be doing something you truly love!!
I think we should ALL do at least ONE thing everyday that we truly love, even for 10 or 20 or 30 minutes. Write a poem! Start the story of your life (reality is stranger than fiction!), grab a colouring book and some crayons and go to it, cut out pictures from a magazine and make a collage, put on your favorite music and dance! I could go on and on…
How beautiful to conceive an idea and bring it into being with your heart and hands!
It is a great regret of mine that I can not come to your
place and pick out a piece of pottery to make mine, all
mine.
The wonderful thing about the Internet is that is really has made the world a global village. If there is anything you see, or an idea you have it’s possible for me to create it and send it to you. Being a potter means one also becomes a pro at packing things that are sent through the mail and having them arrive intact! 🙂
Really lovely pieces and I loved reading how you got to doing pottery.
Hugs and sparkles
WG
Thanks WG. I appreciate your visits here.
I think I’ll have to print your last paragraph and put it on my wall!!
I feel honoured that you feel that way Karen! Thank you.