Putting Things Into Perspective

When things go wrong, I get upset for one reason or another, and at that very moment it seems like the absolute worst thing that could ever happen, I'm reminded that it can always be worse. In my own life, having survived Hurricane Andrew, I know first hand what it's like to have your house destroyed by wind and rain - but we rebuilt, we had insurance and we had a place to evacuate to after the storm passed. Sure we lost a lot of our possessions, but it tought us an important lesson - it's just stuff. Everything was OK. Even when you think it's the worst that it can possibly be, it can always be worse.

Well, for the folks that live in Haiti it's about as bad as it can get and a lot of people are realizing that as residents of this planet we need to come together to try to help. There's been a group on Etsy.com that has started up a shop called Hearts for Haiti. Members of the Etsy selling community are donating items for sale. The shop has raised a tremendous amount of money in a very short period of time. As of the writing of this post the shop has sold 1,660 items. There's a lot to choose from and new items are being listing daily. It's a great way for those of us in the Etsy community to make a small difference, that collectively has the potential to make a big difference.

http://www.facebook.com/heartsforhaiti

http://etsyforhaiti.blogspot.comhttp://

http://www.etsy.com/shop/heartsforhaiti

It Breaks My Heart

The process of working in clay and making your way through the various stages of development can be so tricky. Things go wrong. This is one peice that broke my heart. There's a pair of sunglasses adorning the fish. The arm of the sunglasses broke. I tried to repair it and in the firing the two pieces stayed together, just slipped ever so slightly to make a definite crack. The crack is covered with glaze, but the underlying crack is visible. Now, I don't like to sell flawed pieces, but I love this teapot so much and don't have the heart to smash her for the mosaic makers. So, I'm doing something that I don't normally do, I'm selling her as a "factory second." A lot of people wouldn't notice the flaw, but I know that it's there and that's all that matters in my book.

Parting Is Such Sweet Sorry

I've ignored my blog and feel terrible when I sign in and see that my last post was before Christmas. Of course that means that the first New Year's resolution is to be more diligent about posting on the old blog. Then my second New Year's resolution, which is repeated year after year is to do a better job at gearing up throughout the year for tax time. Each year I get a little bit better, but hey, I'm an artist not an accountant!

Well tomorrow will be a bittersweet day. I'll be sending off another one of my teapots to a new owner. This one was a special order, and a gift to celebrate the purchase of a new home. She's heading out to Texas. Hopefully she'll enjoy her new digs, and as always I hope that her new family loves her as much as I do.

As it gets closer and closer to Christmas and the end of 2009, I start to reflect on how I spent my time. It seems like I have been making Christmas ornaments all year long!

One of the best things to come out of this year is making new friends and getting to know older friends and acquaintances better. There have been ups and downs and back ups again. And I truly believe that the downs help us appreciate the ups. All the while, I've been so lucky to be able to live my dream life: creating things with my hands. As I sit drinking my morning decaf out of my handmade mug, that I made, I want to wish all who might read this blog a happy holiday season, health and good friends and family and peace.

Judy B. Freeman

Potter

That's Clever!

Well, my heartrate is back to normal, the anticipation of nearly 3 years is finished, all that's left are the hoards of fans and paparazi that will be chasing me for autographs and interviews. My segment on HGTV's That's Clever aired this morning. What took six hours to film, clipped down to a little over six minutes. Thankfully the editors took out my flubs, and oh there were a lot of flubs. My husband reminded me that I haven't made a cat bank since the filming. I also don't think that I have ever seen my garagio look so clean and neat, nor do I think I ever will see it look so clean and neat. It's fun to be able to share a look into how I spend my time.

The cat that the bank is based on is Jazmin, a petite calico that we once had, or should I say, she had us. I still love making cats, and as you can see from the background shots, I was big into butterflies and fish teapots back then too. I've inserted a link to a video that I took of the show, just in case you missed it.

So, for my friends and family that encouraged me, and asked every so often, "so what's up with your show?" I can now finally say, the show did go on!!!

HGTV That's Clever!

I have an air date! I can't believe it, but they didn't lose the tape, or whatever they use these days to film TV shows. Anyway, set your DVR's for HGTV at 7:30 am e/p on October 13, 2009. It's going to be fun to see how they transform 6 hours of grueling work into 6 minutes of air time. Also, anxious to see how they were able to make me sound coherent. Oh dear, I hope they were able to make me sound coherent.

Non-potters probably have no idea the angst that's involved in the multi-step process of creating. Especially when you start to work on a piece that you become emotionally attached to. My most recent attachment is to a new teapot called Girls' Night Out - Lola and Sonya Out On The Town. I started this teapot with the thought of reviving one of my old teapot themes, fish with a pelican. As I got further and further into the creation of Lola and Sonya, I started thinking of more ways to make them glitzy, blingy, and fabuloso.

The easy part was to construct the teapot, this is a relatively safe phase of the process. Yes, things can go wrong at this stage, but only a few hours have been invested and I can always start from scratch. Once sufficiently dry, the teapot goes into the kiln for it's first firing. Another precarious stage in the process, when there is the potential for exploding clay or cracking. No problems with the bisque firing, so I pushed on to begin the glazing. This was when I started to feel my connection strengthening. I started to worry about whether glazes were going to run, how I was going to connect the necklaces, etc. etc. Final step prior to the glaze firing was to do a quick dip in clear glaze. This is when I can really screw things up, by smudging the colored underglazes, or having too thick a layer of the clear glaze. Oh the agony. But I pushed on. Yesterday, I loaded the glaze kiln with goodies. I always approach a kiln load with pessimistic optimism. Knowing that stuff can go wrong, but hoping that "stuff" doesn't happen. As the kiln was firing just prior to the shut off, I heard a noise. It sounded like maybe something tipped over. There was no way I could lift the lid, so I had to just imagine what it could be. Could one of the pieces have shifted off it's stilts and toppled over and then taken out another piece with it? My imagine ran wild and with 17 hours to go before I could open the kiln up, it was an evening of trying to find ways to get my mind off the kiln. This morning I was up bright and early, out to the studio and opened up the kiln. No problems with the top shelf, no problems with the second level, no problems with the third level, no problems with the bottom shelf. I have no idea what the noise was, but I have to remember this for the future. Don't fret over the unknown. And with clay, don't fret at all because there's always another one in my hands.