28.02.2020 Marbling

I have been teaching pottery classes for the last 6 years. The first year I was working for someone else. The last 5 years I have been running my own studio, where I teach and make my own work. These two branches of my practice complement and feed off of each other. Teaching classes gives me structure, scedule and routine to live by. Supplies need to be ordered, delivered and placed around the studio. Phone calls, emails, texts, facebook messages, instagram messages need be answered.  Equipment and tools need to be maintained, cleaned, looked after.  Clay needs to get recycled.  Marketing and social media needs to be attended to regularly. Bills need to get paid. Cleaners and accountants need to be contacted. Events bookings need to be properly thpught through and planned.  All of these and probably a million other small items that I can not think of from the top of my head, are just for the classes to be running smoothly. 

Then there is my own work. There is no structure, no deadlines, no expectations, no quidelines to follow. I am self employed. I exhibit and sell my work when I am ready to do so. It is very liberating and crippling at the same time. I absolutely love the freedom that comes with working for myself. I look forward to these days, when I do not have any apointments and have all day to myself. I always have a big list of things I want to make and if I am not careful it is a good way to get yourself overwhelmed and unable to make anything at all, because you are spreading yourself so thinly. So I need to pick and choose, and come with a plan of action. Making my own work also has a lot of different moving parts. After initial planing of the idea, there is the supplies question. Do I have everything and what do I need to get? There is a research for glaze recipes and glaze making and testing step. There is actual making step. Some things will work out some will need to be recycled and remade better. All of these is followed by firing and final sanding, washing, photography, and we are ready for the world to see us!   

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