Pottery Can Be Like Yoga For The Less Flexible

My mother and I have had a what you might call a “conflict filled” relationship, so a week before my college graduation, she decided she wanted to make things better between us. That was when we took a pottery class. We had tried a few things, but nothing really stuck between us. I would like doing one thing that she did not and vice versa, but pottery was the first thing we both enjoyed.

Yup. Pottery. As in the, “fired ceramic wares that contain clay when formed, except for the technical, structural, and refractory products.”

In fact, we enjoyed it so much, that after my graduation, we set up a whole studio in the garage. We got all of our ceramics supplies, pottery clay, pottery tools, pottery wheels, pottery glazes and just every kind of pottery equipment we might need.

See, it might seem like we went overboard with the kiln and with the pottery glazes, but they are vital to the craft. Kilns are what we bake the pottery in, and we learned at the store that it actually matters what kind of fuel we use. Coal and wood can introduce smoke, soot and ash into the kiln which can affect the appearance of unprotected wares apparently. That was why we needed to get special glazes as well, but the kiln was the important part. Only after being firing in a kiln is it that clay articles become pottery.

When we started shopping, I finally felt what other people might feel when they shop with their Mom. We bickered about what kind of pottery glazes to get, but it was a good kind of bickering. We treated those pottery glazes like someone might treat the right prom dress.

Together with my Mom, I learned all kinds of stuff about pottery. Like, did you know, that a great part of the history of pottery is actually prehistoric? As in, it is dominantly part of pre literate cultures from the past.

I love our new hobby. Did you know that we can decorate clay before or after we fire it? I tell you this only to rationalize how extravagant we got with the pottery glazes. Remember when I said we had trouble picking them out? Well, we wound up buying all of the pottery glazes.

What kinds of pottery glazes do you use in your studio? Are there any favorites? Please discuss in the comments below. Ger more information on this topic here.