Books and pots

trying to be less fussy about everything, a memoir

The book is coming along. I’m making pots, too, or trying. Here is a new thing I’m attempting, working with textures more, carving cups. I have a few that I’m finishing for people in the coming days, then dropping into the mail for xmas and whatnot. I’m running the kiln continuously these days. I am not excited to see my electric bill next month, but whatever. Do you want a cup? I can send you one after the new year. It’s too late to make new cups now, probably, and get them to the post office in time. I’ve been asking people who order these to venmo me $75 + $10 shipping, because shipping is expensive and these cups take forever to make. I need to be better about my time, so I can make these more affordable, but also Ori says I should be charging more, given the amount of time they take. These are all porcelain, btw, which mostly means they are very fussy to make and carve, and I destroy several before making one I can put in the kiln. Relatedly, they are exceptionally lightweight. It’s a fun little experiment, in any case. I somehow agreed to put handles on some of them, which is fine, but also frustrating in a totally different way.

my hands are enormous, but you get the idea.

It’s cold here, or colder. The air is very dry, and the days are short, and the work is the same. I agreed to make an essay for a place that will probably publish it soon if I turn in my draft. I will let you know when that happens. They reached out to me, which is maybe how I publish everything these days. I don’t think to pitch unless someone talks to me about it first. I would like to do more journalism, and will be on a reporting trip in January for VQR, and may write some other pieces for other places in the winter and spring, so that’ll be fun. Some of these pieces are reported sides to my book, and so they feel complementary in a way that is exciting and useful, and some of them are totally irrelevant and that’s great too, a little break from the book work. I am also applying for some jobs, some writing related and some not, and hoping I can maybe generate more income in the new year. I did apply to Home Depot, by the way, but so far they haven’t called me. The Home Depot application came with a long personality questionnaire, which I am never very good at, mostly because I overthink things. There is a lesson in all of this, undoubtedly.

Something I’m learning from substack is how to write faster, to get to the point, to generate work when work is required. I am trying to be less fussy about everything, even pots. Originally I didn’t even want to post a photo of this little cup experiment, because I could only see its flaws. I should have taken more time on this part or that part, I tell myself. Maybe the foot is too big, though I like putting big feet on cups and bowls, so they feel more stable when you set them down. Or I don’t like the glaze, or how it settled on the cup in the kiln. Or I feel like a line isn’t carved quite right. Or I feel my signature on the bottom is a little smeary, because I didn’t water down my iron oxide enough before I signed it, then glazed on top of it. But the perfect is the enemy of the good, as people say, and probably it’s not useful to think about these kinds of things. Probably I should just make the work, and then decide what I can send out into the world.

On that note, I’m off to reload the kiln.