When does an artist get to start calling herself an artist? Who gets to decide when an artist gets to start calling herself an artist? Is it different if the would-be artist is a potter?
These are the things that I wonder about on long road trips.
We did the first kiln fire since I've been working at
The Purple Peacock. I wanted to learn everything I could, so I helped load the kiln under the watchful eye of a bona fide potter and artist. I am so thankful that these women are so eager to share their knowledge, and nurture my learning about this ancient art form.
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| Nighty night, naked clay. Tomorrow, you'll be ready for glaze! |
Pottery is fired twice - once to bake the clay, and again to bake the glaze. Each time the kiln is unloaded, its like Christmas morning. You never quite know whether everything will survive being exposed to 2000+ degrees for several hours. And after glazing, you just don't know how the different glaze colors will interact with each other once they are exposed to so much heat, so every piece is its own little science experiment.
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| This is everything that came out after the glaze fire from all of the potters at the studio. |
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| This is just my stuff. Not sure any of it qualifies me as a "potter", but at least its functional! |
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| Two days later, right back at it. With Sunday looking on, of course. |
I still don't know if I'm "allowed" to call myself a potter, but I'm going to anyway because yesterday I ate my Cheerios out of a bowl I made with my own hands.
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| My Cheerios. My bowl. I declare myself a "potter". |
