I've always been a "wallower"... messy by nature AND design. How terribly unfortunate for my mother - the neat freak. Mud was great, but clay was sent from Heaven!
My first real attempt to make a "real" piece of pottery was prompted by my childhood best friend's older brother. He was a naughty kid and almost always up to no good. And on one particular day, he tried out his new BB-gun on his grandmother's old plates.
Johnny actually managed to break a couple of the plates, that's where I came in. After he stopped having all of the fun of shooting at them, he realized that he'd be in serious trouble once "Grannie" discovered his BB-gun skills... so I offered to try to make new plates for him out of the clay that was down by the local creek.
I used paper plates as molds for the new plates, then set them in the sun to dry. Once I managed to get through that phase, I used Johnny's model car paint to color them and popped my work into their oven. Well, not only did it NOT work, but the heated up paint smelled the entire house up and the plates crumbled to pieces all over the floor!
Johnny was busted, just like the plates. He spent the entire summer in a pretty foul mood and I avoided going over to their house because of it.
I pretty much forgot about makeing useful things out of clay after that... until I was a senior in high school. My favorite art teacher - Maggie - introduced me to throwing on the wheel. It was instant love! I've been making pottery ever since and have learned a million life-lessons on the way. The majority of this blog will be focused on what I've learned, what I make and what I hope to do in the future. I hope you enjoy reading this helter-skelter adventure.
