So much to do

So little time

Hobby or obsession?

I haven’t written many posts lately.

It’s unlike me. Usually, I have so much on my mind, the only way I can unload is to write it down.

I still have random thoughts flashing around all the time, but there doesn’t seem to be time anymore - and when there is I’m too tired.

There’s been rather too much going on lately - all the more reason to write, as there’s plenty of subject material.

I think I have to confess that I’ve become a little obsessed with something else rather than writing.

I was a full-time potter, making my living, paying the mortgage and bringing up four children for nearly 20 years from 1975.

During that time, I started writing and gradually morphed from being a potter into being a writer/publisher.

In order to keep up the income flow, I became a bit of a donkey, churning out the most saleable pots like a machine. There wasn’t much time to engage the creative impulse - if I ever had one. If I’d been smarter I’d have used machines to make some of those pots, but I was never mechanically inclined.

Instead, I burned myself out, coming to dislike the pottery business. At the same time, the publishing venture failed, so after a stressful time I got a real job, working at a newspaper.

What a revelation.

Regular hours at work. Paid holidays. Health insurance. Employer contributions to superannuation savings. I loved that job - not just because of those benefits, but because the work was interesting and fun and changed every five minutes as new technology, methods and organisations came on the scene. I stayed there for more than 20 years.

I vowed I’d never go back to pottery - I’d been there and done that. And for 30 years I stuck to that resolution.

It was an insidious change that led me back down the pottery road. Writing - the very thing I love - betrayed me.

I was asked to write a story about pottery and before I knew it friends were showering me with wheels, kilns and advice.

I slowly learned how to make pots again. Always on the wheel - that was the only thing that ever interested me.

People started buying them.

Exhibition opportunities started arriving more and more.

Rather than explore many different directions, I became focused on just a few.

I wanted to make better large vase forms and so I make more and more of them, searching for the ideal form, the most beautiful glaze.

I don’t care about so-called ceramic trends and fashions any more. I don’t want to be known as an artist - I’m just a potter.

I don’t mind that my output is getting a bit narrow - this is meant to be about following my inclinations.

At least there’s that.

My heart rises when I open the kiln. Sometimes it sinks a little when things don’t go exactly to plan, but sometimes that’s the catalyst for a new idea.

Swimming has taken a back seat over the past summer.

Lately we’ve used the excuse that we need to walk more and that’s why we’re not swimming, but it’s not really true - we’re not walking much either.

We’re off to walk across England in three weeks and are we fretting about not doing enough walk training?

Oh no, I’m fretting because there are so many pots to make before we go. Will we have time to get them made and fired before we leave?

Besides - we know how to walk. The question really is: will we be fit enough to walk five to six hours a day over hill and dale for three weeks? We’ll have to wait and see, but at least I’ll have more time to write then.

We have an exhibition being set up on July 8, the day we arrive home, so it’s going to be interesting to see what I can get made, glazed and fired before then. 

It’s a group show with seven painters, so I get all the floor space.

If you’re in Nelson, write it down in your diary - the opening is at the McKee Gallery in the Suter in Nelson, 5.30pm Wednesday July 10. You’re all invited.

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