It’s true! Whether you are young or old, or in the midlife stream all things are possible. Do what you love, and you can do anything.
I accidentally became a potter.
I had always been curious about working with clay. One day I decided to take a pottery lesson with a friend. Little did I know at the time a sensory love affair started that day.
My first pieces out of the kiln thrilled me. It was the magical transition of the glaze from the firing that got me. Though looking back at those pieces, I am not sure what gave me hope!
I really had no idea what I was doing. But something lit a fire in me, and it was not the flames of raku!
Have you thought about your dreams lately? Do you still have dreams? Last year (life before pandemic), one of my dreams was to have my first solo pottery exhibition, and thanks to the Oxford Riverside Gallery, and a lot of hard work, I was able to make that happen!
Short video of my Raku Pottery exhibit – ‘The Myth of Family’
Yes, COVID-19 has set some things back (and also some things forward), but regardless, I hope you will continue to join me on my journey as I refine my craft and continue to reach for more dreams.
Raku jewelry is a unique one of a kind gift. 
One of the raku pottery vases from ‘The Myth of Family Exhibit’ 
A raku owl stands guard at a magical garden door.
Was it a coincidence that in my small rural part of the world I was able to find a pottery class to attend? To me, it was meant to be! And the best is yet to come!
What do you think of my story about how I became a potter?
I would love to hear your story about how you found or fell into your creative passion and/or about your creative dreams and aspirations!
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What do I think about your story of how you became a potter?
I think you alchemized your innate talents with your curiosity for clay and developed scary mad skills at wicked levels of coolness and majestic substance by taking your talent and curiosity like a Binary Star system to orbit round and round, cycle after cycle moving as the wheel under your hands does kelping with the flow to become an amazing potter…
is what I think about your creation story.
dang! thanks Jordan! that was really a lovely read. I appreciate it greatly!
My pleasure, and you’re ver much so welcome1 You have great work. Appreciate finding your blog.
And, looking back, I might want to appreciate the “Shift” key a bit more. Lol 🙂
Thank you for sharing your humble beginnings as a potter. Perhaps this is why your work is so good! I always assume artists have had miracuous training, maybe I should learn that we grow by making. Love this insight. Thank you!
I am glad you can relate to it and appreciate your kind words. Keep safe and well!
This is a wonderful story your first vase sparked the fire of creation within you. I am so happy it did as you have progressed to making some magnificent pieces.
Thank you, I am thankful for that day as well and for the time to learn.
My story of cross-stitching began the winter of 1978. There was a blizzard of mammoth proportions and extreme windchills. My cousin and his wife got stranded for a day while we helped dig out their truck. She was stitching and I asked her about it and she explained what it was. The next christmas she gave me my first kit and from then on I was hooked and I’ve been stitching ever since.
It’s so wonderful to hear how you got started. And I think your first vase is still adorable, even if it’s not the biggest! I’m glad you enjoy pottery so much, your pieces are wonderful.
As for my start, I read a David Eddings book when I was little and decided that was what I wanted to do. Now I’ve got two titles to my name and hoping to get a third one ready to go for later this year.
Absolutely! When you follow your dreams, and shed old skins and habits, good things happen.
this is awesome! 🙂
Happy Mothers Day for all Women of the World 🌎
Your story is a beautiful inspiration. Thank you for sharing! The story is never quite complete, there are so many things we can all do because everything is possible 🙂
Lovely to watch you in your work as well as the finished article. It must have felt amazing the opening night of the exhibition, a proud moment, well done.
Big days are born out of small experiences… Only if we give our cent percent to those smaller ones. That day, the fire of Raku gleamed in your eyes and your hard work intensified that 🔥 and so you got reborn as a potter to see the big day of your exhibition!
All the best for future endeavours.👍🌼
Hope covid 19 would depart from our lives soon!
You are inspiring because your story shows anything can be possible. Some dreams are planned and others just happen upon us with no warning. Sometimes, those surprises are the best and most fulfilling. When I retired, I needed to fill the void. I read about WordPress and started writing, which I never dreamed of being a writer. I enjoy every minute of it!
Thanks so much for sharing your story. Interesting to say the least, and inspiring as well.
Awesome, thanks for sharing!
It was either become a biologist or an artist- but I’m really ADD and I have terrible math skills – so art it was!
Your pottery is gorgeous. So happy you found your passion and have fulfilled a dream. For me, it’s fiction writing. I’ve created worlds and stories inside my head since I was a wee one. My English teachers put me in Honors classes, and how I dreaded it! But when they let us write our own stories, then off I went. I chose the health science path, but due to life circumstances, I’m writing now. My dream is to make a living at entertaining people with my stories. Hopefully, they’ll shed some light in all the chaos called life! Thanks for sharing your story! You’re an inspiration!
That is so beautiful🥰 I bet it’s really therapeutic for u creating these wonderful items…then painting them 💚💛🧡❤💙💜
Thank you for your kind words! It definitely is a wonderful process to create and I appreciate the time I have to do it. I hope you are keeping well.
I am doing the one day at a time thing these days. It’s more effective and less demanding 🙋♀️ Hope u r doing well. Stay safe 😷
I started painting after having seen some Bob Ross tutorials. I stopped (temporarely) when I got a very time-consuming job. I kept being creeative, but only in small projects ( like furnishing a doll house with wooden furniture, stitched carpets, and little clay pottery made from self hardening clay.
Due to health issues and a burn out I had to quit my job. Then I went for a pottery course ( in Gouda, the Dutch Pottery Town). In the 2nd year of it something made it impossible for me to knead the clay properly but I learned to make things with roughly putting bits of clay together. Then there was big switch in my life, I moved to Friesland to take care of my old mother, I came out of a nasty divorce, well lots of unhappy things happened. I started to paint again and to alter old books. I sold my books and paintings on a regular base and felt happy. Theb it turned out that the troubles with my hands some 10 yrs earlier where the forebodings of a nasty disease. When it flared I was not even able to handle a fork and a knife at meals, let alone paint. I decided I had to change my style of painting and to look for other ways to continue making altered books and art books. I am still learning to look for do-able ways of expression in my art. The process is a slow one. Earlier I could make a book in about 4 months, now I need more than a year, even sometimes more than 2 years.
My goal is to overcome my illnesses enough to make art again in a faster way, bcause there are so many ideas I want to express in art. That is my dream.
Your work is so inspiring! Thank you for sharing your Myth of Family collection with us, plus footage of you performing your elemental magic! 😊
I really enjoyed reading this. When I was a little girl, I was taken to a funfair and one of a stalls was run by a potter. He’d brought his wheel and was giving demonstrations and also letting people have a go. I made a mug and the experience shaping and moulding that clay as it spun around on the wheel has stayed with me. I’d love to have another go. It’s not all that easy to find somewhere to do it though. There are adult Ed courses available but that’s quite a commitment. I’d like to go on a one day workshop first maybe.
My main creative outlet is writing. I can be anything I want in a story. But it’s not tactile like throwing clay!
Very cool! And look at the talent hidden within you! Thanks for visiting my space. I also stumbled upon my dream.
That is wonderful to hear! I hope you are keeping well.
Too often we give up our dreams in pursuit of A LIVING, but our dreams are what make us a LIFE.
I realized at the tender age of 47 that I’d abandoned ALL my creative outlets – the main ones had been theater and music, but those are hard to do by yourself (and without waking up the people you live with), so I took up the pen instead (well, the word processor, but you know what I mean), and my life is better for it.
Keep following your dreams…