I took pottery clases in high school and I loved it. I then proceeded to teach basic pottery at camps. I worked at an overnight camp and day camp where I taught kids how to do basic throwing and handbuilding. It was a blast!

I’m inspired by the work of other potters. I’ll see someone’s work and I may make something similar for my own pleasure.

Pottery also provides me a canvas. Since I like to paint, I make a basic piece – plate, square, round, oval – as a blank canvas. Then that taps into a different part of me as I think, what should go on here? Sometimes it’s very creative – like a fantasy thing, not based in reality. Other times I’ll make more realistic things like floral pieces.

Making pottery is very therapeutic for me. The one way that I can truly relax is doing pottery. So the whole process of thinking about what to make, how to make it, and then making it is for me, ultimately, relaxation.

What I like about throwing is the almost immediate satisfaction that you’ve made something. Handbuilding is very labor intensive. It takes a long time. Throwing, if you’re lucky, and you can center correctly that day, then in 20 minutes you have a bowl. It’s like painting a wall. You can see what you did. It’s almost immediate reinforcement. Handbuilding, on the other hand, that’s a whole different level of thinking and process.

I get teased about this a lot but here goes. I come into the studio and I wander around. I might shoot the breeze for a few minutes with different people. Then I wander around some more. My head’s going “what do you want to do today?” In about 20 minutes, some idea pops into my head for handbuilding and it has to happen.

So how is that different from throwing? Throwing is almost like – you do what the clay tells you to do at the wheel. I can sit down with 5 pounds of clay and think I’m going to get a 5 pound bowl but I end up with a 1 ½ pound vase. You have to go with the flow when you’re on the wheel.

Everything is art. I learned that from Henriette Dresens, the founder of Potters Place, in my first class with her. Things change from what’s in your head to what actually comes out. You expected to create something different but it’s still good. So everything is art. That was a really crucial lesson that Henriette taught me.

I love the making. I love the whole process of making. Again, I find that it’s very therapeutic. So for me that’s like therapy. I like to be here. I like to be in the studio. I like hanging out with the other potters. I like the communal shared experience. Quite a few of these potters are my friends. That whole social piece is fabulous.

The other piece is when something comes out of my head and actually appears like I had it in my head. That’s really cool because it doesn’t always happen.

Everybody at the studio knows that I quill. I paint. I do other artsy things. But I bet they don’t know that my husband and I used to do mega-latin dancing. Not quite tournament, but almost.

I made a village on a vase. It’s very 3-dimensional. It’s pretty big. It does work as a functional vase. But there’s a whole village built into the top of this piece. It looks like it’s a floating island. I can see sort of the water, the ocean. I stuck with it. It took about 5-6 months to make.