I’ve got a fun show-and-tell today featuring my seven favorite ceramics pieces from the last six months.

In my experience (from my two times of picking up pottery again), the first few months back at the wheel are a bit of a mess. I am not in charge of what’s happening. Sure, I sit down with a plan, but often the clay has different ideas and I am not practiced enough to fight back. I throw timidly and just want to make something. It’s an important part of the process (something is the step after nothing but comes way before anything).

If you’d asked me in March, when I was throwing the mugs, I would have said I had hit my stride. Now, in mid-July, I would say I didn’t actually get comfortable at the wheel until mid-June when the ruffle bowls really started to click. (Probably in November I will look back at my work from this summer and think “friend, you hadn’t even started yet.”)

BUT REGARDLESS: I have seven pieces I have made during the re-learning process that I love and want to talk about today. Let’s get into it.