What is CLAYFULNESS?
Grounded in play, Clayfulness is a monthly newsletter exploring what it means to be a small business. This will be a place where you’ll find failures and victories from my studio practice, how I stay motivated and when I’m not. I’ll write about transparency, the intersection of art and craft and where my inspiration comes from.
This newsletter will ask questions, share intentions and will prompt readers with exercises for play. I’ll include everything from studio progressions, opportunities, regrets and dreams, financial honesty and details of my struggles and triumphs as a working artist. I want this to organically grow and I look forward to sharing more and seeing what unfolds. Thank you for being here.
New Year: New Tools
Routine is my anchor. I’m a creature of habit and there’s many benefits to that. With time and practice I get really good at a few things. Repetition: it’s the way I hone my craft. I’ll do the same thing over and over (for years!) which means I’m really sharpening my skills. The disadvantage is that I can get stuck in that pattern without knowing when the process is holding me back. Truly exploring without boundaries does not come naturally to me. It takes a big effort, personally, to freely try new things and fail. Even though I know failing is learning, it’s still difficult for me. I lean towards being a perfectionist but occasionally I do put myself out there and sometimes those shifts can be revolutionary.
After throwing pots directly on the wheel head for a decade and thinking about upgrading for years, I finally decided to splurge! I’m frugal so this is something that has been percolating for quite some time. I keep both my business and personal expenses as low as possible. I thrive on constraints and “getting by” with what I have. But after having my best month in sales ever I made an exception and purchased my first pottery wheel bat system and clay extruder. After two weeks of throwing on these new bats, I can tell my work is already better. Just like that, I’m more efficient, there’s less clay waste and no warping. I’ve spent two days with my new extruder and I’ve already made countless fun objects and many handle prototypes!
Over the years, I’ve had many requests for cups with handles. I would always politely decline, “no, sadly I don’t make mugs”. I never thought my handles were good enough and I don’t sell anything I’m not 100% confident about. I rarely do commissions and instead focus on what I want to make and never on what I think might sell, or what someone suggests I should sell. I’ve found over time that what defines and makes my work sing is my perspective and how I work with clay. After years of fighting it, I’ve finally come around to the idea of making handles and it’s been fun to play with the simple idea of how to hold a cup. I won’t be selling mugs anytime soon, but I can’t wait to try my new prototypes once I get them fired. Hoping they don’t crack!
Working with clay is slow, and nothing can be rushed otherwise you pay the price. I rarely force exploration because I know if I’m not ready, it will be a waste of time. Mulling over ideas, shelving experiments, working out designs internally is often a process of months and years that is critical to making new work that is never seen. But when I am ready to try new things, it can feel so exciting! That’s where I’m at this month, and it feels amazing to say out loud.
For the first time I can remember, I successfully had two weeks of studio exploration where I was solely concerned with making new sculptures and working on different ideas that will eventually inform my pottery. I played and experimented and it was a real gift to myself. True luxury! The driving force for these creative explosions were my new tools and I’m thankful I allowed myself the purchases. I’m bursting with ideas, which I can honestly say hasn’t happened in quite some time and now I get to go to work.
It’s the fuel I’ve been needing.
Exercise: Arranging through Play
I’m not an expert at much, but when it comes to making arrangements, it’s a superpower of mine. I love making domestic configurations and I encourage you to make a teeny or large composition with what is around you. May it be with twigs, radishes, citrus peels, dust bunnies or dead leaves. Listen to your intuition. Make it for yourself and no one else.
So happy for this/you. Come do a collab with us over at the DrawTogether Grown-Ups Table??
Extruders are so fun! Looking forward to hearing more about your evolving journey in clay!