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Qotw: What Other Things Beside Clay Have You Mastered?


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We potters are well rounded group!  (No sarcasm intended!!)  What have I mastered?  Very thought provoking topic... Let's just say, what have I enjoyed learning and doing...  Sewing, natural childbirth, playing the flute and piccolo, creating stained glass, gardening.  I no longer sew, but can when I need to; childbirth, three is enough; flute and piccolo, 6 years in school, 20 years in an community concert band; stained glass, 20 years but quit when the clay bug bit; gardening, not so much as my weedy garden shows.  I'm very proud of my successful children.  My son is a research scientist and holder of a 5-year NIH grant, oldest daughter worked in the seismic industry, sailed the seven seas and retired at 38, my youngest daughter teaches ninth grade earth and space science, recently returned from Iceland with her students. Raising children is much like working in clay - finding the correct balance between firm and gentle.

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Ah! Very interesting mastered interest here! Let me see what I can add....

 

I mastered playing the piano, that's for sure.

I can restore antique furniture.

I am very good at networking and organising.

Hubby says I am a good cook (blush).....

 

Let me reflect some more. That can't be all?! Be back soon....

 

Evelyne

 

 

Addendum: what I NEVER will master is not getting upset when this sign appears: You have reached your quota of positive votes for the day....

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What a question…had to search my soul what did I mastered.… soul whispered

 

The art of bouncing back........

Build

Destroy

Rebuild

 

Mastering anything is hard work, harder than what I do….

 

Carrying a heart that never hurts and carry a smile that never fades(wish the whole world could master this)

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Guest JBaymore

I too shy away from the idea of "mastered" with most anything.  That is a  "title" for others to potentially append .... not for me to judge.

 

As to other things that I have done pretty seriously and well over the years.........

 

I started playing music professionally in clubs as the age of 13 (had a NJ liquor commission waiver).  Later I was in a very serious band in the late 60's and early 70's.  Spent a lot of time on the road and in recording studios (had a TINY clay studio in the basement of the band's house).  Got right to the edge of the "big time" (record company interested) and we all decided the music business was not for us.  I no longer play at all.  Miss it sometimes.  Still have my Gretch kit with Zildjans all around.  Can't bring myself to sell it.  (I played for the first time since 1972 at the Potter's Jam at NCECA two years ago.)

 

At the age of 18 I started teaching (snow) skiing professionally.  I stuck with that until maybe about 4-5 years ago... and ended that career holding the highest level of international certification (Level 3), and also as a Educational Staff member working for the Professional Ski Instructors of America.  Was sponsored by Atomic for most on my time doing that.  I still ski for fun. Still not too bad for an "old guy".

 

best,

 

.....................john

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I am no where near professional level skiing. By mastering skiing I mean able to make runs while in control. After sliding down the mountain terrified on my first attempt, that is mastering for my satisfaction..Maybe it is better to say overcome the instead of mastering. I would like to take up scuba diving but my husband gets seasick.

Marcia

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Came to the conclusion many years ago that a creative soul is never satisfied with a singular expression. I see it on this forum all the time: no matter how close to  perfection a piece may be: there is always a quest to do more. I see it in the testing, pushing boundaries, exploring new forms or techniques; or the constant tweaking of our favorite glaze. So I am not amazed that so many have explored so much: I would expect nothing less from creative dreamers with endless curiosity.

Nerd

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JK said:

 

Come on, LT. There are no dumb questions, just answers you don't know yet.

 

Agreed,

 

And some times the conversation needs a "dumb" question to really get to the topic that needs to be discussed, especially when the "experts" are at the edge of the field of knowledge.  A dumb question often gets everyone outside the self imposed box where we reside.

 

LT

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Mastered may be a bit overhyped but my thought on this thread was other things that one has been good at in life.

 

My list started young with butterfly catching and displays as well as lots ocean time with my family when very young-that later turned into being a dive master and underwater photographer which may be my most mastered craft.

I worked a few dive boats out of Santa Barbara  as a dive master with 40 aboard in the 80s to pay for my expensive habit of being underwater and hooked up with an accomplished underwater photographer as a mentor.

Diving like clay took over my life and now with two boats and two high pressure compressors and a pile of tanks (I'm a tank inspector as well) it been many a great experience on and under the sea.

If I had this to do over I would what a place to live with a dock and warmer water around.

 

The other skill sets are more mundane like electrical and plumbing and basic carpentry and concrete work which all came with being a potter.I like to know how stuff works since childhood and that been a good and bad thing-great when you master it -bad when you break it and cannot fix it. 

The last one thing that does  come to mind this evening is fishing for albacore tuna-I have a reputation for finding them and coming home with them the past near 20 years-I think it luck but it could be more.

Keep up the stories and let us know what you feel you are good at.

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A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

— Robert Heinlein

 

I can play an honest game of chess, épée fence well enough, and build what needs to be built (maybe not to code).

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Great list Matt. Nice reflections, Mark. One thing I really excelled at was being a klutz. First and second person to use the Girl Scout troop insurance on 2 camping trips. My family nickname was Calamity Jane because I was so accident prone. But childhood was exciting. Crabbing in a rowboat with my sisters, fishing with my grandfather, walking miles along the undeveloped Jersey Shore shell hunting, painting the porch rails for my grandmother, mowing the lawn for $0.25 allowance. Exploring Historical Philadelphia with a sketch book at age 11 after art school on Saturdays and stashing my portfolio and tool box in a locker at the 13th st. station. Always came home late and gave my mom some flowers if it was really late. 35-25 cents a bunch.

 

Marcia

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I'm pretty good at knitting with 4 needles. I like lace and cables.

 

 

 

 

Diesel Clay I knew it!!

Knitter of lace, knitter of cables, 2 needles, 4 needles NOT circular jobbies. here. SPinner of own fibres

 

No Master of... here just obsessiveness.

Earth mother here so do lots of stuff around that.

would like to master the art of public speaking, something happens to my voice.. any suggestions..Not much public here but would be nice. Can stand at front of class of teenagers no prob... what's going on"

 

JOhn B oh so modest one of those people who could do anything and does.

 

Benzine, well I can't imagine that

B

Oh thought of a master of.. getting so far into a book I become deaf, frozen, all senses turned off. Wish everyone out of the house so I can get on with it!

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Guest JBaymore

JOhn B oh so modest one of those people who could do anything and does.

 

 

Oh so not true.  I screw up with the best of em'.

 

best,

.............................john

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JOhn B oh so modest one of those people who could do anything and does.

 

Oh so not true.  I screw up with the best of em'.

 

best,

.............................john

 

But prob. bigger!!! and with much more finesse??
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  • 5 weeks later...

Mastered......nothing.  Enjoy.....gardening both veggies and flowers; when I was younger I loved riding horses, was a decent shot of both primitive bow and muzzleloader. I find beadwork relaxing. I do pre-1840 historical re-enactments for a hobby, so I also enjoyed making and decorating buckskin dresses, Hunting and fishing.  Within the last several years I help cows have their calves.  Reading and learning things.  Piddled around on electric guitar, sang/screamed in a punk band.  Perhaps the only thing I have "mastered" is the love I have in my heart for family, friends, and the natural world we live in.

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Well, I've mastered the art of keeping former lovers and exes (2) as friends. And had the pleasure of working together with four of them to build my home addition, to my design and under my direction, while they lived on my premises 5 days a week (with no fringe benefits - they're exes!). That was most satisfying.

 

Mastered reading under almost any circumstances - with Kindle, I can even read while washing dishes (a dream when books were only paper).

 

Skilled at philosophy, typing, editing, indexing, proofreading and data entry. Typed (I miss touch typing, too, Chilli, iPads are great for many things, but not that) and edited my former husband's philosophy book, "Hume's Religious Naturalism." (He wasn't one of my construction crew, though)

 

Provided live-in elder care for Granny (d. 1976, age 88) and Mom (d. 2002, age 84), so I feel that I can master my own "art of dying," at least twenty years from now.

 

Competent in: sketching, sewing, crafting, carpentry, house painting, decorating, inventing ways to do stuff. Cooking, gardening, I grow tomatoes in the summer, roast and freeze them to make Grandma-in-Law's Tomato Gravy all year - my Baked Ziti is superb!

 

Mastered wallpapering with brown paper bags on old plaster walls.

 

Never far from my sketch/idea book. Sometimes I come across unlabeled old drawings and have fun figuring out what I was figuring out.

 

Terrible at waiting for a trout to bite, they know I'd rather be reading.

 

Clay and I will always be co-workers, mastery is tantalizingly elusive.

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"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it." - Pablo Picasso

 

I wouldn't say I'm a master of anything but I can do a bunch of things well.

 

I paint in oils, acrylics and watercolors. I do plumbing and electrical work. I've built an extension to our home. I do fine woodworking and about a third of the furniture in our home I built. I play the guitar now for over 50 years. I thoroughly enjoy woodturning.

 

I ran my own business for 30 years, raised two beautiful and successful daughters and still married to my first wife, a wonderful woman.  

 

Now I'm starting to learn how to throw mud. I think I'm swirling into a new vortex of no return.

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Mastering things?

Not that much mastered but I like to knit, garden, paint with acrylics sometimes, hike, run,bike, ski. I took my level 1 ski instructor's cert. a few years ago just to see if I could do it. Tried back country skiing up at Bow Summit, AB. Might try that again.  Can't seem to get the hang of telemark skiing- guess my knees are not up to that. Spent a lot of time in remote areas so navigation by pre-GPS methods had to be mastered via maps + airphotos . (GPS & sat photos are so much easier now). I like visiting galleries & museums. That's about it.

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