Alone in my head

One of the biggest advantages of working alone is also one of the biggest disadvantages. You get a lot of time to think, and it is not always productive thought… Sure there are the moments when you find yourself thinking, “If I move the hole on these vessels from here to over here, I won’t have to spend so much time repairing them before they can be fired.” Or those times when you think, “If I started a bead like this and then instead of finishing it the way that I usually do I did thus and such instead…”

All too often, however, you find yourself thinking about things completely unrelated to what you’re doing… Or maybe I’m universalizing my own experiences. As an example, I spent part of today, while I was working on shell vessels for the show next weekend, imagining a conversation between my sister-in-law and myself. The two of us have communicated more since Sprout’s birth than in the rest of the twelve years that her brother and I have been married, but we still don’t have much to say to each other. It’s nothing personal, I’m sure, we’re just in different places. (Geographically and otherwise)

I’m very much in favor of the thinking that leads me in new directions, and maybe I should try to email my sister-in-law just to say hi and to send her a picture of her brother and her niece. I’m just suddenly aware of how much time I spend inside my own head.

All-in-all, today was a very productive day. Sprout was very cooperative, playing in her “megasaucer” and napping in her portable swing. I feel a little less panicked about the show next weekend. I have 16 shell vessels drying so that I can clean them for bisque firing. I have a bunch of half-moon vessels started and waiting for necks and holes. The three amphorae with handles are dry and in a bead bowl awaiting the bisque firing.

I have an ophthalmologist appointment on Tuesday. I plan on doing a bisque firing on Tuesday since it is a thing that I can do without the ability to see clearly. (just incase they put drops or something in my eyes that further blurs my vision.) I may need to do a bisque on Sunday as well, in which case I will glaze fire Monday and I can make things in the studio on both Sunday and Monday while monitoring the kiln downstairs.

If I don’t post much over the next week, take it as a good sign that I’m actually getting work done in the studio…