Working together…

This wee cup is one I made as a sampler for an upcoming workshop for Mothers Day. (There are still places available by the way. Give us a shout for more information or check out the workshops page on this website.)

However, my point of showing you the picture is that this is what happens when we work together. I’ll explain.

I made the cup and saucer and it was out of the kiln on the table with a whole kiln full of glazing; shop and individual orders; workshop pots; pots made by other potters who hire my kiln. It was going to be a busy day. Our grown-up daughter is living at home with us and in exchange for board and lodgings does a day’s work for us a week. (We like exchanges; you’ll have worked that out!) Mostly, Em does admin for us – gallery spreadsheets, updating Etsy, photographing stock – but sometimes I call her in to the pottery. We had done quite a bit of glazing already and then reached the cup and saucer. I was doing some detailed glazing on some poetry plaques so I gave Emily free reign (or is it free rein?) and she chose this spring yellow tinged with green around the edges.

It’s so different from what I would have chosen. But it’s lovely and cheerful and bright – just the thing for a Mothers Day gift and for an eye-catching photograph.

We live and work together as a family and there are many joys to that, the simple days, in the pottery, woodshed, garden, taking a picnic lunch where and when we choose, coorying up by the fire when it’s an admin day. There are also challenges though. Different views and ideas and ways of doing things. The challenge is to learn from one another and letting go of our way of doing things. Keep cheering us on.