top of page

A work in progress - always

Writer's picture: J WoodlandJ Woodland

We all have different "works in progress", whether it is pottery, emails, grocery lists, checkbooks to balance - whatever. Where my pottery is concerned, I find that I am as excited about the work in progress as I am about the finished product. For me, it is the journey of creating the piece that is as important as the final piece...sometimes even more so if I have learned something important along the way.


Keeping track of my work in progress is challenging at times because I am a member of a studio and I share that space with other members, students and staff. I following their timeline, not my own when it comes to bisque and glaze firing so at times my work can be sitting on a shelf for weeks. That is fine, as long as I can keep track of it!


I started using an app (for Android) that seems to work well for me. I can capture dates, pictures and notes at each milestone (thrown, trimmed, bisqued, glaze fired, and finished) - all of which is extremely helpful. I keep track of how much clay I used in the piece, what glazes were applied, etc. All very helpful, but not perfect...not quite what I would want to do...but better than most of the other options I tried.


I love walking in the door of the studio first thing in the morning - anticipation high. What will I learn today? Will my day be filled with success or will I push the limits and find the points of failure. Neither is bad...just part of the journey.


Today, I dropped by for just a couple of hours. I wanted to put handles on a couple of mugs an trim some bowls...all works in progress. I then found two items that had been bisque fired! YEA! I took a few minutes to sand them, wipe them down, wax the bottoms and decide on the glazes I wanted to use for them. A new combination (for me), so I applied the first glaze and put them both back on the shelf ready to finish in a couple of days. Just more works in progress.


When I leave for the day - I give thought to the pieces I made (or failed in making) - what did I learn? What techniques were successful? Will I make adjustments next time? What will be my next steps to my works in progress? Each day - the answers are a bit different...just like my works in progress.




6 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


© 2023 by Artist Corner. Proudly created with Wix.com

bottom of page