New year, new pots! I'm late to the game when it comes to new year blog posts I guess, but here we are nonetheless.
I wanted to share some projects I have in mind for this year. I've loved building a community on my social media (mostly Instagram, let's be real). Getting to share with other potters that live very far away from me and learn from them has been so fun, as well as just getting to speak with people who have the same passion as me. So I figured I'd try the blog post thing. I feel like it's much easier for me to word vomit on "paper" than it is in front of a camera. Here we are.
🤓 Projects for 2023! 😎
1: In-person markets
I really want to try in-person markets this year. I think they'll be great to (1) get to know the people that like the stuff I make, (2) understand what kind of stuff people like me to make, and (3) put myself out there and really get out of my comfort zone. I imagine it's going to take some getting used to, standing behind a table of my stuff (stuff I make with so much love and joy and patience and care) and being like "Do yOu WAnT tO bUY mY ThiNgS?"... not my strong suit. Or I guess we'll see about that!
I'm already confirmed for one in September, and there are many more to apply to. I just can't wait to get there. I'm figuring it out as I go, but that's my favorite way to learn new things anyway.
2: A full dinnerware set
That's right! My partner has been asking how come we still use industrial-made plates and bowls when I could make the best set ever myself (not wrong), so I decided it would be a fun project for the year.
I do think it'll teach me a ton, other than just selfishly really wanting my own handmade dinnerware set.
Repetition throwing
I have thrown some repeated forms, but I'm not very good at it yet. Making this set will really allow me to practice repetition throwing (making the same shape over and over). It looks really easy, but it's something I find very challenging.
My latest try at repetition throwing, these somewhat-similar cups
A study in shapes and functionality
I also want to be very intentional about shapes: I want them to stack and to be "appropriate" for our habits. What I mean by that is that I use a lot of bowls - as a matter of fact, I almost never eat from classic flat plates, so I think even our plates will basically be massive shallow bowls... but I want to experiment with that before making any final decisions.
They also need to be fully dishwasher safe. That's usually not an issue with my pieces (or my dishwasher? it's never destroyed any of my pieces before). Basically I just don't want the pieces to end up being too thin, so I'll be looking out for thickness.
✨ Glazes ✨ & colors
Oh yea that's right, I'll be experimenting with new glazes to land on the perfect color palette! I'm imagining something colorful yet muted, so no bright colors but pastels and tertiary, mucky colors. I also have found I prefer a matte or satin finish, and I'm a sucker for a slightly textured glaze. And I don't want it all to be one color - a set but not a set you know.
An example of one of my very favorite pieces - texture, a satin matte finish, and mostly neutral colors.
It's going to be a lot of testing (which is not my strong-suit, being the impatient person I am), because I also want to test out the different glazes on different clays. There might be a world in which I make the whole thing in demi-porcelain so that the glazes keep their desired color since they're being applied to a white clay. But I'm also a sucker for the recycled clay of the studio, which usually turns out to be a slightly speckled very neutral brown. And I've recently discovered the black clay we use at the studio, I sort of fell in love with it, so that's now an option too...
I'm expecting this to be probably a year-long project if I don't work on it every time I throw. That's exciting because I haven't gone through this whole process before. I will for sure bring you along, so stay tuned for all that! 👀
I will also keep you posted on the in-person markets, and I hope you'll join me on this journey, either by following me on Instagram or subscribing to my email list below!