‘When you buy something from an artist, you’re buying more than an object (or a video, or a book, or a story). You are buying hundreds of hours of errors and experimentation. You’re buying years of frustration and moments of pure joy. You’re not buying just one thing, you are buying a piece of a heart, a piece of a soul. A small piece of someone else’s life. Thank you.’
I love this, I’m not sure who wrote it, but it does say what many potters and artists feel.
I know from my own experience with this amazing medium what joy passion and pure frustration I have felt over the 35 years I have been working with clay.
It is a love story for me, I get so much joy its almost becoming one with the clay! When I’m creating a little frog or a chook, or one of my scrumptious fat ladies, my customers often tell me the piece has a soul it speaks to them it makes them smile.. Thats what gives me the energy at times to keep creating, I like to know that my little creations that I have had so much pleasure in creating, can also be giving the person who buys the piece pleasure too, its very rewarding!
I first discovered clay when I was expecting my 2nd son, we were living in Nobby at the time, I had started attending the Toowoomba Ceramic school where I obtained my diploma in Ceramics. After the birth of my son, I couldn’t keep the classes up so my Father gave me a potters wheel it was shipped up by rail.
Now I could practise when ever I got the chance, I’m forever grateful for my father’s kindness, and the Potter’s wheel that has seen me through some very difficult and lonely times in those early days. I still have it today its more than 34 years old, it will always be part of the studio and my ‘thank you’ whisper to my now passed Dad for the years of enjoyment it has given me.