letting go a little

Tonight I needed to start making mugs for the first ever (or at least in recent history) farmers market in Nome that will be happening this August.  I want to have a bit of pottery there to represent my peeps at the NWC, but I have been so, so strapped for time, what with getting the house sorted, the garden put in, traveling, and chasing my wild tot around, that I have barely been able to get into the studio to clean and organize, let alone create anything.

For potters there always seems to be an endless battle between fussing to get a pot "just-so" or being open to going where the clay wants to take you.  I find myself often stuck in the former category... and I don't think there is anything wrong with that per se, but once in a while it is good to let go a little.

So for these mugs I decided to just see what the clay wanted to do.  It is a great excersize to just get yourself a bunch of 1# balls of clay and throw fast.  No fussing, no smoothing out all the finger lines with rib tools, no getting all matchy-matchy with calipers... just see what becomes.  I even cut these off the bat with a wiggle wire so I don't have to trim them later.

1 hour later and I came out with 15 funky mugs.  I even tipped a couple slightly off-kilter just to add character.  I'm kind of pleased with these guys... but I may change my mind after I have to attach 15 handles... that is not quite as quixotic an activity, to be sure.