It's An Endurance Event

I had an ah-ha moment the other day.  I've got to start thinking of this pottery-making-have-the-studio/gallery-open operation as more of an endurance race rather than a sprint.  Before this spring, the only time I spent in the studio was serious work time.  I would go in, get as much done as I could, visit a little bit with the others but not to much, and then leave.

Now though, I am there more hours, and while I do need to accomplish some things when I'm there, I can slow down. In fact, I need to slow down. I cannot maintain the work hard, go-go-go pace for the amount of time that I'm there.  So like the pace I would run for a half marathon or a triathlon (I'd really like to do another one of those one day) is different from the pace I would run for a 5K, I've got to let myself be OK with moving at a slower pace in pottery making. The point is to finish the race. If I go out too fast, that might not happen.

I approached yesterday with this mindset.  It was a Second Saturday which means potentially more foot traffic uptown. I've decided that I need to try to have the place open until at least 3 pm on those Saturdays.  (Other Saturdays I've been staying until 1:30 or 2pm.)  Jeff and I were also planning to baby sit the three grand children last night, so I needed to save some energy for that as well.  I took my time, moved maybe a little slower, visited with folks who dropped in, and remembered to eat.  The result was that I wasn't half dead at 3pm when I closed up and I had energy to play outside with the kids that evening.  It was great.

Those of you who know me well, will recognize that continuing this will be a challenge.  I'm a go hard until I collapse kind of person. Hopefully I'll be able to continue this way.

While I was there, here's what I did...

Since I would be there for a long time and it was going to be HOT, I decided to see if I could make some mugs start to finish.

Eight 1.5 lb balls of clay

Eight mugs

Outside on the tailgate of the truck to dry

Ready for handles

And done!

In between these steps, I worked on some things that I'd started on Friday afternoon.  I was really tired Friday afternoon when I got to the studio.  I rode my bike, went for a jog (very short), worked on the "farm" for two hours, then I got cleaned up and went to town.  This is not the recipe for successful pottery making, but I threw three pieces that I planned to continue work on Saturday morning.

I planned to make this into a candle holder.  I started by marking off even sections.

 

Next I cut the holes.  

There we go.  Candle holder.

I made a second one too.  The hole cutter I used wouldn't make the large holes, so I did those with a clean up tool.  I was not overly happy with the result, but maybe after it's finished it won't look too bad.  There was also a plate that I cut some holes in the rim.  I forgot to get a picture of it.