Wednesday, October 9, 2024

ALL IN A DAY'S WORK

On some days I am reminded that I don't make nearly as many pots a day as I used to. Cutting down on the wear and tear on my wrists and lower back I keep throwing to less than three, preferably two hours a day while working off a script of orders, commisions and gallery restock. Yesterday was a semi-typical day of throwing terra cotta where I threw three covered serving bowls, lids and knobs, three 14" plates, three 3lbs bowls and four 2.5lb bowls and decided that was far along on the list to call it quits at the wheel. But that is not completely the whole picture, I ran a glaze fire kiln, pulled out forty pieces for an upcoming show, made out the paperwork and inventory sheet (which I just emailed in minutes ago) and then started the prep for dealing with the pots I just made, mostly making up black and white slips and getting finished pots stacked and out of the way, all in a day's work. I realize this doesn't really sound like a lot of work but for the sake of not destroying my wrists and back, this routine has served me rather well over the past decade or so despite the fact that back in the day if there weren't at least a zillion pots covering every available free space, I would just not feel satisfied but that was then and this is now.  

Illustrated are the three terra cotta covered serving bowls thrown yesterday and tooled today, two as yet to be decorated.