Recently, my daughter, Liz, found some old photos of pottery that I did in the 80’s!!! They look pretty bad and the shot setup was horrible! But…. I was wishing I were a good potter, but I had to postpone my involvement until a later date.
So now my “Love Affair With Clay” can resume! And I decided to blog about it!
At first I simply called my blog: “Marian Williams’ Pottery”. I changed the name of my blog to “A Love Affair With Clay” because that is what I am ultimately writing about – an obsession, a love, a jealous lover. When I say, “A Love Affair”, I mean it. I fell in love with clay a long time ago and she has been my secret obsession, happy to stay in the background, until I could give her time again.
I came across this website the other day and the author says it beautifully! Have a read: Barebente
In the blog post, she says: “Throwing is a strange thing – some days I couldn’t even center, other days it was all a doddle. It is a sensual, earthy, deeply touchy-feely thing that seems to reflect moods, and ideally you should chose the task fitting the day. Clay is great material, and working with the elements is deeply satisfying. You create from earth.”
She goes on to say, “The kiln fires the gooey, soft, sensual clay into stone; it is a non-reversible process, and the object dies a little for me – I tend to lose interest in the finished product. It is the clay part of the process, and firing kilns that attracts me. The transformation is total, the pot will never leave earth, it cannot be broken down to the original materials. Ages hence, my pottery shards will still be around. Longevity. Infinity. A mindblowing thought – and one that (should) keeps potters constantly reminded to not fire substandard pots in the first place. We won’t get rid of them.” Barebente
