Ceramic Treasures by Sharyn.​

When our children had all completed high school, I had a lot more time on my hands and the arthritis from my auto immune illnesses made it difficult to do much of anything. Having been busy with my children's education, their activities and my volunteer work my entire adult life, it was time for something just for me, a social outlet if nothing else. My husband encouraged me to take a class at a local Arts Center. I started with photography but found they took field trips, and my health didn't allow me to participate fully. I did learn a lot in on-site classes, so when photographing family or my gardens, I put those skills to work. I now also use those skills in my pottery business, so you might say it was a foreshadowing of what was yet to come.

 

My next class was a beginning ceramics class at the art center. I enjoyed learning and making, but I also found a sense of community there. I discovered that I loved making pottery, especially carving designs and painting scenes with underglazes. I was able to work with different instructors and more advanced potters, thereby learning different techniques. Additional workshops from visiting potters and a class in Raku pottery have added to my interest and skills.

 

It wasn't long before I learned that immersing myself in pottery helped me to deal with the intense pain I live with every day from my autoimmune illnesses. While working at a table creating something, throwing on the wheel, carving a picture or painting/glazing my work, I could distract myself enough to mask some of the pain. I looked forward to opportunities to go to the studio for pain relief, to practice the skills and to be with other potters.  As time went on, it became more and more difficult for me to get to classes. Often, I would go, but only be able to stay for half of the class. I began to bring clay home, work at our kitchen table and then would take things to the studio to be glazed and fired. 

 

As my pain increased, I worked more and more hours at home and pottery began to take over in a number of rooms in the house. It was then my husband suggested we clean out the room we'd used as a classroom for our children and make it into a ceramic studio. What a wonderful blessing to have him willing to help me clean it, build work benches and help to set it up for me. With a studio at our home, I was able to work any time, day or night, according to what my body allowed and what would help me most with pain. With my own kiln I was able to try new techniques and fire it when my pottery was ready, rather than according to the art center's schedule. While it doesn't resolve the pain and there are days when I can't work at all, most days I can at least work a few hours. There are times I can so immerse myself, that I work 12 hours or more with only breaks for meals, sometimes working as many as 7-8 hours without realizing how much time has gone by!  

Pottery has saved my life. I don't know how I would deal with the pain if not for my work in pottery. When I'm having an extremely bad day, I've even been known to take items to bed--I can paint, make beads and sculpt small items, or put together finished projects like jewelry, ornaments and magnets.  I now keep a bag of clay near the bed so I can make gnomes or other miniatures, great for pain management in such times. Such days are also spent working on drawings/designs and planning projects or watching videos to learn new skills. There is always something new or different to learn that I am sure I will never become bored with pottery, and thereby continue to provide pain relief. The key, of course, will be selling it so that I can afford my "pain relief", this kind of medicine isn't covered by insurance so as time goes on, while I like to provide affordable pottery to my customers, I have to be able to cover the cost of the supplies, electricity and gas for my kilns, and to replace tools as they wear out, thus continuing is directly related to my ability to sell enough of my work.