It's not like riding a bike!

Nope, not at all. Throwing pots after being away from the wheel for nearly a year is not at all like getting back on a bike. In fact, it is much more like getting back on the horse that threw you. And there is a reason why when you are first learning to throw, you start with 1 pound lumps of clay...not 5 pound. I might add, trimming pots at 4 am in your nighty is not really all that much fun either.

You might well ask, just exactly why is LeAnn doing this? Just before I left for Portland I got notification that I'd been juried into the Fall Studio Tour. I was pretty much over the moon. That is until I got back and realized that I had a scant 3 months to get ready. You see I only have 2 finished barnacle pots for the show. I reckon I need about 40 pots. But not all barnacle pots. These babies can take 4 weeks to make from start to finish. So 4 am is about the coolest time of day in my studio and everyone in my house is asleep then. No need to wake everyone up by turning on lights to get dressed. Besides, that nighty is pretty darned comfy. Spent the whole day in it. OK, enough of the personal details.

Once those pots are trimmed, I get to start on the part that I truly enjoy ....applying about a zillion little pads of clay, stamping them, and poking their centers to make a little crater. The pot gets scored all over then the bottom gets filled in with barnacles. It gets turned right side up and the rim gets embellished with very thin strips of very moist clay. The top barnacles then get filled in.

And voila! Several hours later (I don't keep track of time, the pot is finished. I do really love the embellishment part. It sets up its own rythm and becomes something like a meditation. The work just sort of flows and the pattern emerges.

This pot is all wrapped up for the night so the moisture can equalize. Then it will dry very slowly for the next few days. I finished 3 pots today, so only 37 more to go!