What these pots need is a little color.

 The amazing thing about making pottery is taking it through all the different stages that it needs to transform it from that lump of clay to an object that you can use.

There are many times during the process that you need to give a little thought to what you are doing.

 I had a teacher who always said you need to know what it will be as you are taking it off the wheel.

Now, I don't always know what it will be right at that minute, but I have a vague thought about where it will be going.

 If I did not have some thought about the piece it might takes me months of sitting with that piece to get it to talk to me.

There are pieces that don't speak up  very loudly to me and I find that I do need to set them aside and just think about them a bit.
But, for  the most part I know where we are going when they are being made.

I have talked before about how I prefer to work in groups of pots. The group gives me more choice on how I will glaze. If faced with one pot that has no cousins sitting next to them I find that one pot harder to glaze.
My thoughts are too focused on the loss, or possible loss of one pot.
 
 With a group of pots I feel my chances are better in pulling something good out.

There are always the production pots that go into every kiln load and they are usually a given as to how they will be glazed.
Mark and I will work those pots together.
He will put the base glaze on and I will put the top glaze on.
There is a comfort to the work when you can share in this process.
Mark and I will have a plan in place by penciling the name of the glaze on the pots.
We then get into the rhythm of the glazing much as you would a dance.
Sharing this part of the glazing helps move the process along at a nice speed.

We will then move onto the pots that we have a more individual attachment to. Those pots need a plan as well and can take a bit more time to glaze.

So what do we like going on in the background.
Some days when we are glazing it is tunes.
Other days we listen to talk radio and then there are the days that we turn nothing on.
We can go for hours and just work and the next think one of us says,"is it lunch time"?

I have walked this path before many times and it is always the same but different.
The cycle of work always takes me by surprise even though I have been at this for a few years now.


Waxing has been mostly finished and glazing starts tomorrow.

Tunes or not?
We'll see
M