POTTERY IS FOR slowing down.
My pottery studio is up two flights of stairs in a strange warehouse/apartment hybrid building, the kind of place you’d only find on a random street in Brooklyn. Every time I heave open the sturdy metal door and step into the space, my sense of time shifts. I find myself in respite from the eager, persistent energy of my city. I fall into a rhythm - my hands wedging the clay, the wheel spinning round and round and round, the consistent dip of a mugs into a bucket of drippy glaze. Everything feels slow and lovely and gentle while my hands work.
So much of pottery is slow. The wedging and pinching, throwing and attaching pieces together. Once a piece is formed just so, there’s the drawn out drying process: resting under plastic and then in open air. Slow, slow, slow to avoid cracks in the surface. Once it’s dry as bone, it’s fired in the kiln and slowly brought to cool. Surface level decorations and dips in glazes are added before more hot, hot hours in the kiln.
Pottery is destined to be slow and steady - when it’s pulled from the earth and is molded by my hands in my time warped studio; when it’s slow dried and fired; finally, when it makes its journey to you - to be used slowly, lovingly. A mug in your hands, reminding you to breathe with your morning coffee or to unwind with your tea at night. A vase for the flowers you bought yourself to brighten your tough week. A small dish holding a dip to be shared between friends over a leisurely conversation on a Saturday afternoon. It’s slow in birth and slow in life, a reminder that slow and steady can be healing.
May the pottery in your home remind you to slow down, even just for a moment.
Yesterday, I spent the morning designing the piece for my March Grounding Clay Club members. It’s interactive and fun and playful - a little less serious than months past. If you’re not already a member, you can learn more and sign up here - newsletter subscribers get 10% off with the code CLAYCLUBLOVE.
As a designer with a masters in social work, I was geeking out at this podcast episode - two queens in both of my fields chatting for an hour!! Even if you’re not a designer or a social worker, I think any human being would get a lot out of this smart and relevant conversation. [side note: I just gifted my household Brene Brown’s new book Atlas of the Heart - it’s already a favorite and will rest on my coffee table for years to come (hopefully stacked with Debbie Millman’s Why Design Matters one day)]
I’ve been working on putting systems in place here in my studio as I grow, and I’ve been reading and listening and thinking so much about habits. I’m starting with automating basic tasks so I can use my brain power to make pretty, functional designs and write enjoyable newsletters! Wish me luck.
Haruki Murakami’s words on slowness have been on my mind, especially in terms of my creative and business practices. “You have to realize it's going to be a long process and that you'll work on things slowly, one at a time.”
And of course, my mind and heart has constantly been with Ukraine.
Thank you for being here. xx