Hands, Brains, and Happiness: It's all connected

My pottery friends often say of their messy hobby: "It's cheaper than therapy." It's meant as a joke, of course, but like the best jokes, it contains a grain of truth. Neuroscience has some possible explanations for why your pottery hobby can help prevent or ease depression. 

The Effort-Driven Reward Circuit

Dr. Kelly Lambert, a neuroscientist at the University of Richmond, has written on the subject of behavior-induced neuroplasticity Lambert believes that human brains are innately wired to induce well-being when performing certain physical tasks. She calls this the Effort-Driven Reward Circuit, involving brain regions connected to emotion, reason, and creativity, and it could be key to a happy brain. Lamberts notes that in the 19th century doctors sometimes prescribed knitting to address anxiety. It makes sense to her:  "Repetitive movement, increasing certain neurochemicals, and then if you produce something - a hat, or a scarf - there's the reward."

Work has changed since the environment our brains evolved in! For many of us our work tasks are almost exclusively intellectual, with very little physical activity. A hands-on hobby with a creative aspect can help spark up that neglected brain circuitry & generate some of those happy-making brain chemicals. 

This must be what inspires me to say I am a dopamine queen. (I sometimes think I've never been interested in recreational drugs, because I sort for employ brain chemicals for a similar purpose. I used to be an oxytocin queen - yeah, don't do that. Lotta bad decisions came out of that.) 
Anyway: tl;dr: get into your studio & make stuff! You'll be happier for it. 

April Rewards!

I had no idea so many people were into stickers! Since I started the patreon page a year ago, I've had several people ask if I would offer stickers. Like everything I do, it took me a while to get around to it, but I did get there: this month's reward at the $5 level (the Water tier! Earth, Water, Air, Fire, get it?🙂) and up, is a sticker! You may remember this image from the t-shirts I created - you can still get one of those here -  and I still had the .jpg lying around. Stickers it is! 

I used a company called Sticker Invasion, who are reasonably priced but maybe a bit slower than the larger operations? My sense is that it's one guy, doing everything, not unlike Fine Mess Pottery, and I do have a soft spot for very small businesses. 

I ordered some extra, so I will have some for sale at the Maine Pottery Tour (come visit!) 

I've also ordered screens made from Little Chair Printing, with which I can screen print tshirts, aprons, and tote bags. I did make the sane decision not to try to offer a screen-printing event at the tour, but now I have a whole year to re-learn this process, so I can do it next year. Those practice pieces - the ones that are actually successful - will probably find their way to patrons too, probably at the Air & Fire Levels. Maybe I will make artwear out of the ones I goof up! 

Maine Pottery Tour 2025

It's the same, only it's different. 

Longtime readers may remember that I founded the Maine Pottery Tour in...2012? Or 2011, I forget. I didn't have grand ideas, at the time; I just needed an event after a long winter. Here in greater Augusta, we're blessed to have six or seven studios within a few miles of each other. I persuaded my potter-neighbors to all hold our spring open house events on the same day, to share promotional efforts & make it more of a thing. 

And what a thing it became! It has grown every year. 

But this year, I'm not organizing it. I did, up until last year's tour, and while it was a lot of work, it was also a lot of fun. Or maybe fun isn't the word I want...it was satisfying, like figuring out a puzzle. How much/fast can we grow without each individual event suffering? I tried to grow the audience along with the tour itself, because the individual studios' success was the whole point. The tour itself was just a means to that end. 

Inevitably, it grew beyond my ability to manage it. It was always a volunteer effort, and everything we did to make it better also made it more work. More studios also mean more work, and more questions to answer. I couldn't carry it anymore. 
Lucky for me, Milly Welsh of Zwellyn Pottery was willing to pick up the torch. We both understood that it had to become a paying concern if it were going to continue - and Milly thinks she can do that. 
So far it seems to be going great! There are 80 studios this year. Because Milly & her team run a web development company, they were able to automate many functions, lightening some of the load. 

Anyway! This year I was looking forward to having time & energy to promote my own event as zealously as I previously promoted the tour as a whole. It didn't happen quite like that - I spent more time making pots and - confession - more time just not working. That's actually pretty nice, not working sometimes, have you tried it?
Now here we are three weeks out & I'm back in the groove. I sent out the 75 postcards that came as part of my tour package, but my mailing list is like 300 people. It's actually cheaper for me to create my own Fine-Mess-specific postcard & send those out to the rest of the folks. The image above is what I came up with. I wanted to include some process photos, because to me that's what makes the tour a happening; without the demos & the projects & the kilns, it's just shopping. I've always worked to make my event more than that. The shopping is what makes it possible, but building connections between artists and audience is its real purpose. 
If you're anywhere near Maine the first weekend in May, I hope you'll come visit me. Read more about what's on offer at Fine Mess Pottery here; plan what studios you'd like to visit with the Plan My Tour app. 

Photo Dump: So, This Happened...

 It's been a minute since I did a photo dump! The biggest thing that happened in the last two weeks is, I fired the soda kiln. Here's a shot from the first peek inside: 

It was overall a good firing, a no-more-than-expected rate of flawed pots & a nice even coat of soda, with just enough directional effect to make things interesting. Possible I am crazy, but I'm hoping to get two more firings in before the Pottery Tour: one for inventory to sell, one to unload during the event.

I was planning to do a silk screening activity as well, but my friend Ellen, of Peeper Pond Studio (also known as the voice of sanity) persuaded me that it was too ambitious, considering that I have not silk screened anything for 30 years. In my recollection, it is not difficult to do, but making, loading & firing two kiln loads, as well as all the other prep for the tour, really does not leave time for me to remind myself how to do this.

Unloading day means grinding, sanding, sorting, pricing, packing, & delivering. I brought new pots to the Maine Potters Market and to the gallery at Portland Pottery.

You've probably seen some of my clay critters, if you've been reading for a while. I feel pretty confident making bears, cats, birds & rabbits; I've been wanting to figure out otters for a while. This was my first attempt. It's recognizably an otter, but needs work; the head is too big & the forehead too domed. It's a start. 

 Then, this happened! I was shopping an antique store in Hallowell when I saw this mug on the shelf:

The one there in the middle? That's my mug! Not mine as in it belongs to me, but mine as in, I made it! Maybe like 10 years ago? I'm not sure i am old enough to have made any actual antiques! 😄 I was tempted to buy it, as it's only $12, and it's a really good mug, but to be honest, I do not need another mug. If you're local to Hallowell, it's at the Hallowell Antiques Mall.

I might make some more like that, though. I had forgotten about that style.

And last, but hardly least, my crocuses have come into full flower. I am fond of crocuses, and in fact they may be why I am a gardener at all. I have an early memory - I was maybe 6? My family had moved a few months before, from Brewer, Maine to Scarborough, and this was our first winter in our new house. There had been a heavy snow, but it must have been a spring storm, because my mom brought my sister & I outside to the southern corner of the house. She knelt down & brushed away the snow, and lo & behold, there were flowers! Blooming under the snow! To my child's mind it seemed magical. Crocuses still seem magical to me.

And, here's the blah-blah: crossposted from Patreon! If you enjoy this content & want to support, you an subscribe for as little as $1.50/month. 

Thanks for reading! 

Shop Update is LIVE!

Practically hot out of the kiln! 😄
Check it out here. For discount codes, (future) early access to new pots, and great exclusive content subscribe at the Pottery Patron level or above. This month's discount code gets you 10% off, so if you're planning to purchase it might be worth it for that alone. 

 

Shop Update Preview

 I spent the day today photographing ware. I'll spend most of tomorrow listing them online. Choose your faves now! 

Maine Magnets

I found this stainless steel cookie cutter from a shop on Etsy - I may have mentioned, I hate Etsy as a seller but enjoy it as a buyer! I got it for a specific purpose: to make what will become refrigerator magnets for the Maine Pottery Tour. 

Two quick tips for using cookie cutters with clay: 1) cut your shape through think plastic. It rounds the edges, giving a pillowy effect, and saves you some time when smoothing the edges; they will already be pretty smooth and 

2) Place the rolled slab on a piece of smooth fabric before cutting; otherwise it's hard to get the cut piece off the tabletop without distorting it. 

These will be available only at my studio during the Maine Pottery Tour. 

The Fiscardo Wreck

 

Enormous Roman Shipwreck Found Off Greek Island

One of the things I love about being a potter (side note: I start a lot of sentences that way) is how it connects me to history. People have been making things out of clay for tens of thousands of years. The oldest known piece of fired clay is estimated to be 27,000 years old!
With that in mind, I'm interested in stories that highlight the role ceramics has played in human history, like this one: Enormous Roman Shipwreck Found Off Greek Island

We don't know the name of the ship that went down; it's called the Fiscardo Wreck for its location at the northeastern tip of the island of Kefalonia, close to the entrance to the...[read more]

An Opportunity!

 ...for the right person. 
The Northern Clay Center, an institution in the ceramics world for decades, is seeking an executive director. 

I taught at NCC in the 90s. It was an amazing organization then & it has only gotten better. I was (briefly!) tempted to apply for this myself until I remembered that A) I'm probably not qualified and B) I no longer live in Minnesota. (Even then I was like, but I could work remotely? Briefly.)

Anyway, maybe you are qualified, and do live in Minnesota, or are at a life stage when moving is a reasonable possibility. If so, here's your chance! I am the tiniest bit jealous of you. Briefly. 

Unload The Kiln With Me!

I think we can all agree that the best part of being a potter is unloading the kiln; the reward for all our hard work. This post is to offer you two opportunities to unload with me!

First, paid subscribers to my Patreon page get access to the unloading video! When I can get out of my own way, I like to do that live; yesterday the technology defeated me, and I just took a video & posted it after the fact. Your paid subscription also gets you first choice of items out of the kiln, and discount codes. 

And second, I'm going to unload a glaze firing on day one of the Maine Pottery Tour. The tour is May 3rd & 4th this year. The lead up to the tour is crazy, I always have a lot to do even without throwing a firing into the mix, but I find people really enjoy being a part of the aspect - see also "best part of being a potter." I'll open the kiln at 11 am. 

I hope you can make it on the tour! But if you can't (or even if you can!), there's always Patreon. 

Kiln is Loaded, Pilots are Lit!

 ....Aaand, we're rolling! Granted, we're not rolling very fast at the moment, and those darn pilot lights keep threatening to go out, but this firing is happening! 

It seemed to take longer than usual to load the kiln. I kept taking breaks to warm my hands; I can't wear gloves because I have to handle the wet sticky wadding. As usual, I couldn't fit as much ware as I hoped, but I think I got everything in that I really needed to. There's a LOT of wax in this firing. I'll have to get up around 3 am to turn on the burners, so my neighbors don't call the fire department when they see the smoke from the burning wax. That has happened before! 

Best guess, I'll be spraying soda around 4 pm, pulling draw rings shortly after. It's been too long! I'm super excited for this firing. 

Glaze Layering & a Quick Tip

Due to the vagaries of firing, I'm never sure what a piece will look like until I actually take it out of the kiln. In case that's not enough uncertainty for ya, we can make the result even less predictable by layering glazes! Each glaze has its own factors a variation, and they all interact with each other.

Does that sounds insane? Like, why would you do that? Because the fired results can be so complex and intriguing and beautiful! 

Take this piece:

The balloon is to keep the rim from warping while drying. That is the Quick Tip! It worked perfectly. 

I have since glazed and fired this mug, using thinly brushed layers of three different glazes. I brushed on the glazes because three dipped layers would be a lot of glaze, so would have the potential to flow off the pot & onto the kiln shelf. Brushed glaze also tends to be more unevenly applied than dipped glaze, which we usually think of as a disadvantage to that method, but in this case, it creates greater variation for a more visually active surface.

See links to the glaze recipes here! 

The Grind

The lovely weather we've had in Maine this weekend marks the beginning of firing season; but before firing comes shelf-grinding.

I can't say it's my favorite part of making. It's dirty, heavy work, with none of the joy that comes from the creative parts of the making process. Still, dopamine queen that I am, there's a satisfaction to it, looking at the freshly smooth, washed shelves.
And then there's the bisque firing itself! The bisque is the less complex of the two firings that make up the cycle...[read more]

Refuge

 This sign appeared in the studio I teach at last week. I chuckled but at the same time felt grateful; lately the world feels like it's going down the tubes & while I do what I can to turn it back, everyone needs rest & refuge. My pottery community provides that for me. It's heartening to know it's not just me. 

There's another aspect, as well. I still believe that we need places, social places, where we can just be people; friends and neighbors. I believe this is the only possible path to the healing of this country. For  example: I have students who I know are evangelicals, who I think probably voted for trump. I also have several student who are trans. I see them all laughing together, sharing successes & failures in clay...and then, as part of the conversation, sometimes it comes up that one of them is trans. It's hard to continue to hold hateful beliefs when the person you've been told to hate is sitting beside you lending you their wire tool. 
This is the power of community. This is where our shared humanity cannot be denied, and where it has the power to heal us. 

Anyway, blah-blah-blah, new post at Patreon. 

Centering Larger Pieces

Often the limiting factor of how large you can throw is, how much can you center? I have a new (free!) video on my Patreon page demonstrating a method of centering for larger pieces that will help you get around that limitation! Check out the preview clip here, then head over to Patreon to watch the whole thing (again - this one is free &available to everyone!) If you find it helpful, you can subscribe (free, or starting at $1.50/month) while you are there. :)

It's time to think about...

 ....the Maine Pottery Tour! 

Oh, wait, no it's not!! As proud as I am of the work I did building up the tour to the event it is today, I am only delighted to have handed off that work to Milly Welsh and her team. Now is about when I would be sending out an email checking in with studios to see who would be participating this year. 

I'm almost giddy that the tour will go on but I don't have to do it. 
One of the big things I am excited about is putting the time & energy I was spending on the tour as a whole towards promoting my own event. I haven't been unhappy with my turnout but I do feel like there's room to grow.

So! While I do not have to start thinking about the tour yet, I will soon. Soon, but not today! Today I am sorting, pricing, & packing pots to go to my consignment accounts, finishing some leatherhard ware, and hopefully making a video for my Patreon page. I'm going to try This One Weird Trick I saw on instagram & make a succulent planter. It's very fun & easy! I love contrast of the rough, tree-bark-y exterior surface with the smooth, refined interior. I think the soda kiln will be a great surface for it & preserve the craggy, natural quality of it. Picture it with Hen & Chicks or Zebra plants in it. 

That vid will be for paid subscribers, so if you are interested, subscribe today! Paid subscriptions start at $1.50/month. 

Slip Transfer

Every once in a while I go down a rabbit hole & get very interested in slip transfer techniques. Image transfer doesn't really have a role in my work (which is not to say that it never could) but one of the great things about teaching classes is it allows me time to explore all kinds of techniques, even if they have no immediate use for me. 
I'll have a tutorial up on my Patreon page about this - hoping to do a quick video when I demo this for my class - but honestly it's so simple it hardly requires a lesson. I just brushed slip on newspaper, let it dry to a satin shine, then pressed it onto leatherhard clay with a rib. 
I love the eroded quality of the stripes, like paint peeling on a fence. 

Aaaaand, It's Live!

After a two day review period, my Faire shop is live! Faire is an online venue for store owners & buyers to find new work to carry. It's a wholesale ordering platform so it will be in addition to, rather than replacing, my online retail shop.

If it's like every other online platform, its success will depend on how well I promote it and maintain it. I'm excited to have this shop up & running just in time for trade show season! I'll let you know how it goes! 

PS. I think it helps me in some algorithm way if you click the link? I might be misunderstanding that...but just in case! If you want to help me out with minimal pain in the ass to you, you could pop in for a look! 

New Year, New Idea!

Please forgive any typos; Finn is sleeping on my right hand, so I am typing one handed with my left. (If you have cats, you understand this. It's against natural law to disturb a sleeping cat!) 

After reading of a few people's good experiences with them, I decided to give Faire a try. Faire is an online wholesale marketplace, where buyers can find makers. It makes sense to me as an alternative to wholesale shows, that require you to haul your ware sometimes thousands of miles, stay in hotels, pay thousands in booth fees, etc. The same for the buyers! This seems like a better option. 

Unlike many potters, I like to do wholesale! My favorites are the buyers who come & choose from the inventory I already have, but orders are good, too - they let me plan a bit, knowing when I can expect payment & how much. 

(Oh! There's my hand back. Thanks, Finn! I was starting to lose feeling in it.)  

I have a dim recollection that I considered this once before & decided against it, but I'm not sure I am thinking of the same site, because while I bumped on a couple of things - we'll get to those - nothing jumped out at me as unacceptable right out of the gate. Wait! Was Faire the one that I didn't know I had to apply to & got rejected anyway? Can't remember. I hope not! If I get rejected from something I didn't know I had to apply for a second time that will be a discouraging way to start the New Year! 

You pay nothing on Faire unless you sell, in which case you pay a commission of 15%. This is a little steep, considering wholesale price is traditionally 50% of retail, and Faire asks sellers - well, requires sellers - to agree not to charge more on their site than elsewhere; or rather, it sounds a little steep, until you compare it to the costs I outlined above: booth fees, travel, time out of the studio. In the case of those costs, you pay whether you get orders or not! 15% only on actual orders is starting to sound a little more reasonable. 
Speaking of costs, though, the other thing I bumped on was pricing: I see a lot of items that I can't imagine how they are making money. Someone was offering mugs at a suggested retail of $5, which would make their wholesale price $2.50! That was just one, but there were several on the first page of the search offering mugs at a suggested retail of $25, which I also could not do. I did a big more poking about, though, and found some sellers at more reasonable price points, including one who told me Faire is about 30% of their business. 
There is an algorithm to learn; the seller I chatted with, Gravesco Pottery, suggested starting with 8 - 10 items, then adding new listings in groups of three; that seemed to keep their shop on the front page for up to a week at a time. 
Right now my shop is being "reviewed," so not yet live. I plan to offer only one slip-trail design - flax blossoms - as that is the quickest & easiest, so the lower price I'll be getting won't be unsustainable. I only have one listing, because I need to photograph some items in that design & I need to make a few more. In addition to making cornbread (for prosperity in the new year) I will be doing those things today.
I know I have mostly potters reading this blog; have any of you used Faire? What has your experience been?

PS! The December photo dump is up (free!) on my Patreon page!