P.S> I sure hope this doesn't turn out to be another experience in vanity
No way!! This is all sounding very EXCITING to me!!
When's your first studio show?? <g>
Great to hear that you're getting all *fired up*... (o:
I say, take advantage of these incredible bursts of energy when they occur. I do that as much as possible with my own art. You kind of have to do it that way because the creative spirit comes and goes according to some mysterious cycle of its own. I have learned not to try to control it too much and to just run with it whenever it happens.
That's pretty neat about just being able to spin pots again after an absence of time. I have had similar experiences working with my torches, or with wood carving tools. I always think I'll forget how to work with them after awhile, but then I just sharpen a chisel and start to cut and *voila*... somehow my hands remember just how much pressure to apply to the chisel and how to move over the grain of the wood so that the necessary control is still there. There seems to be this odd sympathy that exists between our hands and the materials that we work with... and it seems to take a lot to make that go away.
I remember an interesting illustration of this that happened a few years ago when I was giving a wool-spinning demonstration at an agricultural exhibition. I was working on a very exacting wheel that I have... a Schact Matchless... and had the high-speed flyer on it. It takes a very experienced handspinner to spin well on that kind of a wheel.
Anyhow, this man came up and watched me for a little while as I was spinning very fine yarn as would be used for making one of those super-fine Shetland wedding ring shawls...the ones that are so finely spun and knitted that you can pass them through a wedding ring.
The man started telling me that he grew up in Scotland and that his mother had taught him to use a wheel when he was a about 10 and that he used to spin yarn for her when he was living at home as a teenager. I asked him if he'd like to sit down and try to spin on my wheel for old time's sake. At first, he was shy and reluctant, but I said,...go ahead... you won't harm the wheel any. So, he sat down and just started spinning the most fabulously fine yarn imaginable... almost identical to what I had been spinning just a minute before. It was amazing... absolutely!! And he started to laugh as he just kept whipping out this lovely fine, even soft yarn... really quite wonderful.
Anyhow, to me, that whole incident illustrated just how much "memory" exists in that connection between our minds and our hands (and bodies), and how quickly the "genius" of our minds can reunite with our bodies when we allow the craftsman within us to pick up the tools and materials and start to let our creativity flow. It really is one of those strange miracles associated with thought and process.
Well, I'm glad that you're posting these "progress reports". You might find that they will be like a journal that you can look back on later. Also interesting about the glazing records that you keep. Most spinners and dyers that I know like to keep lots of samples of things such as locks of raw and washed wool, pieces of dye plants, and their "recipes" for dye batches, along with bits of dyed wool before blending or spinning, or yarn samples of skein-dyed wools. Dyeing is as much a science as a skill, so this is one place where you want good records. My take is that glazing is much the same.
Carry on!!
(o:
croc |
