Happy Saturday, everyone! Just popping in to share something random with you this weekend. Last month Elsie, our mom, and I all took a pottery class together. I had never used a pottery wheel before and it was just something I had been wanting to do. So of course, I convinced my mom and sister to come with me.
We took classes at Creava School for the Arts, and I have to say, if you’re a Springfield, MO local and interested in pottery, I highly recommend you check it out. They even offer date night events. 🙂
We made lots of pots and mugs, basically lots of cylinders. 🙂 And I think one of my favorite classes was glaze night as I like coming up with different designs you can make with a wax resistant technique our teacher showed us. Although, not all my attempts worked out exactly how I wanted. But that’s sort of part of the fun anyway.
So, what’s the point of this post exactly? This isn’t a tutorial or a step-by-step guide. Trust me when I say, you don’t want to learn this type of pottery from me since I’m just learning myself right now.
I think as I was taking this pottery class I was reminded about a few different ideas that I just sometimes forget, so I thought I’d share.
-Try new things. It’s so fun! It’s totally fine to not be an expert.
-Creativity is all about making mistakes, messes and learning. My little pots are FAR from perfect, but I love them and had fun making them. And sometimes, that’s totally enough.
-Good craftsmanship is important, but it comes with time. Our teacher stressed craftsmanship and proper technique, and I’m a big fan of learning to do things the “right way.” But I also think often we learn the rules so we can break them, but that means you have to know the rules first! And also, good work takes time. If you’re not happy with something you make one day, there’s always tomorrow. I often get discouraged when I feel like everything I do has to be A+ all the time or else I’m a hack. Which is a lot of pressure to constantly deal with. I think I should move my focus to putting in an A+ effort, and if the work doesn’t turn out perfect every time, well, I guess I’m just human. Oh well. 🙂
-Making stuff is fun. Like, really fun. It was such a relief to get off work on Thursday nights and just go do something with my hands. Just getting out of my head sometimes is good for me I think.
If you’ve been feeling in a bit of a rut, or just want to try something new, might I suggest pottery? Or you can learn to sew, cook, paint, build, write, photograph, etc!
Anyway, thanks for letting me share my pottery and some random thoughts with you all this weekend. Hope you’re having a great one! xo. Emma
Credits // Author and Photography: Emma Chapman. Photos edited with A Beautiful Mess actions.
I’m so in love with these pieces you made! They have the perfect amount of imperfections 🙂 My husband and I love collecting handmade ceramics. They give our dishware such rustic charm! Looks like you girls had fun taking the class 🙂
Circus & Bloom
♥♥♥
I started making pottery 3 years ago while I was feeling pretty low and having a hard time in my life. It helped me comtrol my anxiety (you cant thing of anything else while trowing! Its magic!) and I’m obsessed! I’m going to start to sell my coffee mugs and tea bowls on ETSY soon. Who knows where it will lead me 🙂 PS: I wish my ceramic center would offer date nights haha thats cute!
Oh girls! Pottery is a huge love of mine!! May I say that you are absolutely right when you say that creating is all about mistakes? I find myself being really nervous and disappointed in front of mistakes. But some minutes later I realize that this is the only way to learn!
xoxo
Happy mug making!!
these are all so cute!
xx nikki
www.dream-in-neon.com
Love these pieces! I honestly find them much more beautiful than porcelain.
– rocionaval.blogspot.com x
omg so cute!!
This post makes me miss Springfield, MO so much! I just moved from there after finishing undergrad at MOState’s painting program and the posts are always another reminder of how cool that city is. And theres so much for the arts lover! Im sure you check out the First Friday art walks, but if you don’t you totally should, Springfield has awesome local talent!~ By the way i totally adore you gals and this blog! I will have to find a pottery place in my new town and make some mugs and bowls as well!~ Alexis Rivierre www.alexisrivierre.com
These are so beautiful! I always loved throwing on the wheel in high school – one of my dreams one day is to have a wheel!
Thank you so much for this post! The pottery class sounds like it was a whole lot of fun, and I appreciate you sharing (no tutorial needed). 🙂
I recently read an article that said, that doing new things as an adult reduces the feeling of time passing faster the older we get:
Our brain saves especially new things as memories. These memories create some kind of time-structure in our brains. So, as we´re doing a lot of routine stuff in our adult life, we lack those “new-learned-memory-marks”. That´s why a regular week often kind of disapears from our memory. As children we learned new things almost constantly and created a lot of “memory-marks”, that´s why children don´t know this “time-rushing-feeling”.
So doing something new is fun AND good for our mental health – yay! 😉
I’d love to paint my own pottery, it’s something I really want to get round to doing <3
pottery is my passion! I’m doing it every week =)
NASTYADRAMA.ru
I’ve had “take a pottery class” on my list forever. Put it on my 39 before 40 list this year to make sure I finally hit it! Knowing 40 is coming is a good motivator to get things in, something about finally doing some things I want to do before a big date marker is motivating.
Adorable…I love them!
Love Yourself First
I loved this post. Your pieces are beautiful! I like the imperfection and surprises that come with creating, personally. I used to do pottery when I was in high school and had access to a kiln. I miss it so much! I’ve been thinking about taking classes here in Nashville soon. I suppose this blog post is a sign telling me to do it! 😉
i think you just put a thing on my ‘have to do again this year’ list! i did a pottery class in my childhood and seeing your awesome stuff reminds me of all the fun it was!
I really love these Emma. I used to be all about the fine china and delicate patterns, but my tastes have recently changed and I’m getting more and more into chunky design tableware and I think that chunky paired with monochrome is spot on 🙂
I completely agree about the positives trying new things and about part of creativity being making mistakes! My mum is a potter and pottery teacher in the UK and her students have produced some amazing things just by giving it a go.
http://www.rubysharppottery.co.uk/index.html
Trying something new has been my moto the last years.It’s great challenging ourselves on new things. 4 years ago I started crafting brcause I was so burnt out of work (I’m a teacher) and I wanted to do something totally different. So, I put into effect skills (knitting and chochet) my mum had taught me when I was a little girl, I also bought a sewing machine and started making small projects! Crafting is my passion now! And since last I’ve been learning the cello! so hard work! But i love it! So, let’s try new things!
Oh, an other experience to add to my to-do list:-)