My Life as a Pot: It's been awhile.

Yes, it has been awhile. My apologies.

Let me fill you in in why I've been so post-less.

Well, I just needed a good long rest, really. I had my rest in August...if you don't count the day spent in Val-David, packing up my pottery to take home again or the days and days I prepared for a dance workshop at which I taught a drum solo.

Did I mention that I teach belly dance as well as make pots? It's a great job that provides me with a steady income for part of the year. I really love teaching and I love to dance, so what could be better?

Doing both pottery and teaching dance is tiring because they have the same season, which is a lot like a school year.

I begin working in the pottery right after Labour Day.

Belly dance classes begin in the middle of September.

All of the Christmas or fall pottery shows that I'm in this year are over by mid-November.

Some of my classes are done by mid-November but most continue until mid-December.

I get two weeks at the end of each year and two weeks at the beginning of each new year to rest my dance bones. I try to get a leg up on the pots in early January.

From the deepest of winter until spring break I am teaching and potting. Spring break is just one week, but during that week there are no dance classes. I use this week to pot like mad.

Spring to early summer is for potting, dancing and I manage to fit in quite a bit of gardening in too. Flowers make me happy!

My annual summer pottery sale is the weekend nearest to St. Jean Baptiste Day. About one week into July 1001 Pots begins. I'm there opening weekend and I drive to Val-David weekly until mid-August when the exhibition ends.

Pottery making and kiln firing are going on continually from spring break until the 3rd week in July.

So, I've just decided this year, after a terribly unsuccessful string of summer days trying to motivate myself to work, I'll be taking the month of August off. I need to rest, read books, sun bathe, swim, go for walks, eat BBQ, hang out with my cat, weed the garden, sketch the pottery that's been floating around in my head and write new choreographies. And I decided this because I felt completely exhausted when I thought about returning to work right after a quickie 4 day vacation.

I felt guilty for the several false starts with pottery work in August. I felt guilty for not posting here. I prepared well for my dance workshop, but that was all I could manage. I just had to cut myself some slack and realize that I'd been working pretty hard and resting was okay.

I don't just make pottery or show up to teach a class. I have to actively promote my work, be my own secretary, accountant, driver, and manager. I also do heavy lifting, moving, packing and pricing. There are exhibitions, openings and sales to attend. I host and teach two dance workshops each year. There are student recitals and class parties, shows, bazaars, and some workshops and classes where I am the student.

I eased into my time off and re-grouped. It was of great benefit and I felt well rested and ready to get back to work in September.

Since then I have welcomed a pottery student into my wee studio. She is very talented and a really interesting and lovely young woman. I look forward to Saturday mornings with Karine.

I'm currently teaching dance Monday through Thursday in Ottawa at 4 different locations. I teach 8 dance classes each week.

I made a decision yesterday to let one class go, so in 5 weeks I'll be teaching just 7 classes.

I'd been thinking about letting it go for some time and then got an email from my boss saying they're going to cut one of my classes and did I still want to drive out to Nepean to teach for just one hour? Well...no. The cost of gasoline alone eats up 62% of my evening's wage. So this class ends for me in a few short weeks and I'll miss my gals, but this frees up my entire Wednesday. I'm so incredibly happy about this! I desperately need more time with my art.

Here is a picture of a large centrepiece bowl (in the greenware stage) that I finished not too long ago. One of my clients saw it and bought it. Now I just have to bisque it, glaze it and fire it.