Pardon My Extrusion

I have another hobby, that I don't do nearly as often as quilting. It's pottery. I took up pottery after carpal tunnel surgery about 5 or 6 years ago. I was hoping it would be physical therapy for my hand. And it was something for DH and I to do together at the time our daughter and son-in-law were living with us. DH took to it extremely well, and now we have a home studio, with all the necessary tools and appliances.

I've learned, over the years, that I'm a process person, meaning the process of making something is more enjoyable for me than the finished product. (It was very helpful to learn that about myself. Explains a lot of things.) Anyway, I also like immediate gratification when working on something. So pottery takes some work for me. I don't have a lot of patience for certain stages of it, and for the fact that it just takes TIME. So, I don't do too much of it. I have to be in the mood, so to speak.

Anyway, we had a pottery session a while ago, and did a bunch of extrusions. It's better to do a whole bunch at one time before you have to clean the extruder! We got this bunch of extrusions out of the kiln right before I went to California, so hadn't had a lot of time to fondle the pottery when it was done (a very important part of the process!). Anyway, I thought I would share some of my latest pottery. It's not great art, or even great pottery, but it was fun. Most of it isn't for sale, as I don't think it's that good. Or, in some cases, it was too much work to sell it for next-to-nothing! DH sells most of his pottery, which is much better than mine.

The top piece was an attempt at adding a dart, like in sewing clothes, to make the opening smaller, so that the flowers don't all fall to one side. Then a funky vase. Next is a small box. I have an affinity for little boxes. I always seem to be making little boxes in pottery. And this last piece was compulsion-in-action! I couldn't stop with the little dots! This piece is actually 2-sided. And that piece of clay across the top is to, hopefully, help the flowers stand up straighter. We'll see about that, I guess.

Back to quilting!