The Things I Make

CERAMICS: The Beginning of My Journey in Clay

Six years ago I found myself in a ceramic class taught by Dick Hotchkiss in Grass Valley, California. I took the class for fun with the thought that it would make my school experience more enjoyable. The first day of class I showed up early to make sure I knew where I was going. The small campus is up on a hill that overlooks the sun setting into the valley. It is a beautiful view from outside the west facing classroom door. Dick arrived right on time to unlock the door for the waiting students. This is where I began my adventures in clay.

Dick has this dynamic personality that captured my heart right away. Not only was I too fall in love with clay under his instruction but I also fell in love with him and his passion for clay. He is a very tall strong man. He must be at least 6’ 4”. This year he turned 71 and he is still building kilns from scratch, collecting buckets of clay from the mountains, mixing clay and glazes, making pottery, firing kilns, planting, tending and harvesting his beautiful garden, splitting oak rounds, climbing on rooftops, hiking, coaching track, and teaching ceramic classes at Sierra College.

The Sierra College studio came with another amazing man, Andy Sellery. Andy did all the technical work to keep things moving as well as walk around and help students as they worked. The Sierra College studio was complete with the sound of Andy’s laugh. Andy is a fun, loving and a very positive guy. He was always there right when it seemed I needed a little coaching or a little encouragement. He worked hard to keep the kiln loaded and firing and always slipped my pieces into the best spots. Dick and Andy made up the Sierra College team as I know it. Together they helped create the potter that is still growing in me.

The first class I took was a wheel throwing class. The next semester I enrolled in the class a second time along with Dick’s primitive ceramics class. I learned to throw on the wheel, hand build, how to pit fire and raku fire, decorate and glaze, and that Dick makes the most delicious homemade, garden grown rhubarb peach pie. I also learned about the geological make up of clay, what materials are used in glazes… all the processes the clay goes through to become a piece of art.

I continued to enroll in Dick’s classes for the next couple years and even when I wasn’t enrolled Dick allowed me to come in when I could and work. I knew from the beginning that I had found the dream I wanted to follow. Over time I think Dick could see the passion for clay growing in my heart. He gave me the space I needed to work, the tools I needed to learn and the encouragement I needed to be successful. He believed in me as a potter and that gave me courage. Dick became my mentor and even more importantly one of my best friends.


My Bottles

Dick Hotchkiss

My Most Treasured Piece by Dick

Andy Sellery

My Favorite Bowl by Andy

How I Learned to Knit

When I was 10 years old my mom packed up my little sister and me and moved us from Reno, Nevada to Placerville, California. The reason was to start us at Cedar Springs Waldorf School. We had already had our initial interview with our soon to be teachers, Mr. and Mrs. Connolly. The thing that stands out most to me about my interview with Mr. Connolly was that he had me read a passage from ‘The Little House on the Prairie.’ I thought I did a fine job reading out loud but I was still nervous about the possibility of not being accepted into the 5th grade class.

We moved into a two bedroom white house with dark green trim that looked like a barn. You had to drive 2 miles down a long dirt road but it was worth it to make it to the beautiful and adventurous plot of 10 acres. There I found many manzanita forts in the summer and hidden waterfalls cascading through moss covered granite rocks in the winter. It was very different than the dry desert neighborhood that we moved from. This house gave me my first peak of living in the country. It also allowed me a lot of time to explore on my bike and on foot, and hide away in my many hidden manzanita groves.

My first day at Waldorf was the beginning of my 5th grade year and the beginning of my Waldorf education that continued through high school. When I first began I think there were a total of 15 students in my class. We were the oldest class and were destined to be the first graduating 8th grade class from Cedar Springs. By the time we graduated we were a grand total of 12 students, 8 boys and 4 girls.

Everyone was very kind to me as the “new girl” and it didn’t take long before I felt like I was part of the family. Everyday I looked forward to the lessons of the day, the new arts and crafts I was learning and the new songs and verses I was memorizing. Every morning we were greeted by Mr. Connolly with a “good morning” and a hand shake. The chalkboard had a quote of the day chosen by Mr. Connolly that was surrounded by a flower border that soon became familiar as Mr. Connolly’s signature border. We all recited a morning verse together and then sat down for our first lesson of the day.

Soon Mrs. Connolly came over to teach my class handwork. Since all the other students in my class had been knitting and working with yarn for a few years already they were all working on socks and mittens, but I had never even picked up a knitting needle. My first assignment was to make myself a handwork bag to store all my projects in. I hand sewed myself a bag out of blue flannel and then learned how to hand knit a drawstring to close off the top. With my bag done and ready to store a project I was ready for the next task of making a pair of needles so I could learn how to knit. I was given two dowels and some sand paper and instructed to sand down the tips on one end of each dowel until it was sharp, but not too sharp. When that was completed I waxed the whole dowel with beeswax and glued an acorn top on the unsharpened end. With my first pair of knitting needles made I was ready to learn how to cast on and knit. My first project was to knit a flute bag for my newly acquired sea flute. I carefully chose the colors I wanted to use out of the basket of yarn. Now as I look back and think about the colors I chose I laugh: pink, maroon, dark green, light green and blue. I learned how to cast on my stitches and then I learned a little rhyme that I often still recite when I knit: “In through the front door, run around the back, peak through the window, off hops jack.”

This was the beginning of my knitting experience. Under Mrs. Connolly’s instruction I later learned how to knit a pair of mittens, which turned out two different sizes, and a scarf. All through the rest of my life up until the present I have continued to knit. Now my projects consist of arm warmers, doggy sweaters and scarves. Knitting is a way for me to meditate. Thank you Mrs. Connolly for teaching me such a useful craft.

There were many arts and crafts that I learned throughout my education and I still use all of them often. I will make sure to talk about all of them in the future as they are a big part of what has shaped me as a human being. I am very grateful that I was given the opportunity to experience such a rich environment and special education.

Sculptural Pieces

 

 

 

Here goes my attempt to share my art.