If at first you don't succe

Long sigh.  Opened the kiln this morning to a sight no potter EVER wants to see... puddles of glaze.  Used several fresh batches- must've been too thick.  Good news: salvaged all 7 olive oil jugs and was able to dremel a few wine bottoms.  Bad news: chuck'd 39 pieces & spent 2 hours grinding glaze off kiln shelves.  Morning coffee in hand, my husband observed from his perch, "How many hours would you say that cost you?"  Hours and hours.   Long sigh.

As I'm dragging a bagful of worthless wine bottoms to the trash, it hits me:  all just part of the journey, I tell myself.  If I could compare notes with the famous artists out there, we'd share a couple laughs over moments we had wanted to jump ship. Like the time I was commissioned to make a basin sink for my sister's friend.

You might call it a Potter's Creed, but word in the studio is: you can't call yourself a potter til you've thrown a thousand pots.  If you've ever tried your hand at throwing, this makes 100% sense.  It's a hundred times harder than it looks.  Just like the ol saying "practice makes perfect", I guess this is an extreme version of that.

Anyhoo, back to the basin.  I was probably 1/3 of the way through my thousand pots when this confident chica commits to throwing a basin sink.  After many-an-hour in the studio with several wobbly bowls, I had me a winner.  Now, to just let the behemoth dry for a couple weeks before the first firing.  I'll never forget walking into the kiln room the day it was to be cooled and out of the cooker, only to find a box on the floor with my name on it.  In the box was my mighty basin in about 8 large sections of what used to be walls, along with a few cup's worth of fired clay chunks.  It had literally blown up in the kiln.  Turns out the thicker bottom portion of the bowl was not entirely bone dry (completely air-dry).  The sides shrunk faster than the bottom and BANG!

That marked the beginning and end of my basin-making days.  But here I am, back on the horse.  Still throwing, still learning, waiting for the next bang.