my passion, my pottery

Do you have a specialty craft that you love, or are you the type that tries everything to learn the process, and be able to say, "i can make that."

I usually find i'm trying to find my nieche craft.........drifting from scrapbooking to zentangles, sewing to crochet, maybe one day i'll do a soldering class and make a sculpture dragon purely out of hex nuts. (it's a dream of mine along with life drawing and a screenprinting class.)

But my passion, or medium of choice, is clay.

A medium that can be moulded into any shape......the ideas are endless.

I've had two wheel lessons and have made a few 'thrown' bowls.....but it's not my forte. Most potters use the wheel as a way to create vessels......the real magic is in handbuilding.

I'm currently enjoying simple bowl making with textures etched in...doilies, stamps, or anything laying around. I'm also playing with glaze colours and finishes (waiting on availability to do a glaze class.)

I've sold a few things in the shop and i'd love to sell some work at the markets,  but it would be 1/3 pottery, 1/3 upcycled & 1/3 mixed media......because i never want to just have one specialty........but that's just today!!

Tomorrow I might find something else on pinterest and go off on another tangent!!

But for today, I'm just happy to steal away 10 minutes to do something creative with my hands.

If only I could stretch those 10 minutes into 2 hours and get my hands dirty!!!  :)

can I borrow an hour of your time!?!!

I'm often the first to put up my hand and say i don't have time for anything - I think it's my safety mechanism to make sure that no one can tell me I haven't done enough.

If something is too hard I put it off - if I get questioned about it I instinctively go into defence mode....

"I have a full time business,"
"I have two young kids,"
"my husband travels alot and isn't home during the week"

blah blah blah - all valid reasons - but still in my head it's sometimes still not good enough

I sit halfway between "stop feeling sorry for yourself," and "oh man how DO you do it!?!!"

I get up at 5.30 in the morning to check emails for 1/2 an hour.  I then exercise while watching tv for another 30 mins.  breakfast is followed by the usuall yelling at the kids to get ready for school routine.  Once they're gone I'm in the car or on the train - to get in touch on my social networking and to see what the rest of the world is up to.  Working in the gallery is mixed - sometimes it's quiet and I can check my emails and do more networking/behind the scenes work, other times my whole day is talking to people - hearing their stories and sharing the concept - it's sometimes a 'lost day' in my book because I haven't had a chance to be in action.

After I close the doors it's back to travelling home and then to being a mum & wife.  cooking, bit of cleaning, maybe a chat with hubby if he's home.............maybe even 10 minutes to do some crocheting, or painting, or zentangling............either way I don't work after hours cause I'm too tired and need 'me' time!

I'm writing this post while sitting in my gallery - it's a rainy day and I'm not expecting an avalanche of people today - but I'm finding 10 minutes to spend time doing something for 'me' that has been neglected.

I have so many things I want to do, but no free time

I know I use that as an excuse, but if you followed me around for even half a day you would see that i'm already squeezing a hell of a lot into my list laden, time poor schedule.

As long as you find time to do what you love, all the rest is incidental!!

I hope you find 10 minutes to yourself a day to get things done that you are truly passionate about

I just did :)