Gabby

I found that energy begets energy occurs in the classroom also. The more energy I put into demonstrating, getting around to the kids, excitement on my part about projects was returned to me and bounced back and forth by the students. If I was in a slump for some reason, they were too. In the end I found that even if I had a fever, cold and chills that pushing that energy out there made my day. . . and theirs. Of course I slept well at night!

When i was trying to make a living making pots, my studio time was so monopolized with getting ready for the next show, calculating how to push loads through to boxes with the functional items that sold (read a lot of mugs, bowls, cups spoon rest etc.) that pottery started feeling more routine. To counter this I was starting to try and make some time each day to work on a few art pieces. For me that was some vases and such but I had other more elaborate pieces in mind. True my vases didn't sell at the same rate as mugs but they were exciting to work on and they did round out my booth when I bought fresh flowers on the way to the show and they added something to my day.

I think that the best thing to do when a person is out of good ideas, the creative block part of the question, is to do something off of ones normal beaten path, or even on ones beaten path but with an uncommon style of attention.
Off the beaten path could be visiting a new place, reading a new book, or attending an event one would ordinarily never pursue. How could one not get some ideas from that? Revisiting ones beaten path might be to walk that same familiar route one takes each morning but to be deliberate in paying close attention to things you wouldn't necessarily look at.
I actually wouldn't wait for feeling creatively inert to adopt this kind of practice. If it is a regular practice, it has preventative potential.
The author Julia Cameron, who also wrote a popular book for writers called The Artist's Way, calls the regular habit of such "excursions" Artists dates, an appointment with oneself to do something new and interesting that isn't art.
There is a guy named Todd Henry who consults with creative businesses, like design firms, who encourages specifically what he calls "unnecessary creating." He encourages people to build into each week a period of goofing around with a creative medium not their own.  So a writer might draw or a painter might write a haiku or a potter might sing. The point is to choose something different so that there is no performance pressure in it and so that one is effectively using different physical and mental channels.
Einstein used to pick up a violin. Richard Feynman played bongo drums and painted. In neither case were these simply pastimes. having more of an instrumental function.
 

On that same theme, work begets more work. 
There's a theme here of doing tedious, mindless chores, things that encourage your brain into a delta wave state. That's where the magic happens.  Keep your hands busy and let your mind wander. It allows you to rest while being restless. 

I think that the best thing to do when a person is out of good ideas, the creative block part of the question, is to do something off of ones normal beaten path, or even on ones beaten path but with an uncommon style of attention.
Off the beaten path could be visiting a new place, reading a new book, or attending an event one would ordinarily never pursue. How could one not get some ideas from that? Revisiting ones beaten path might be to walk that same familiar route one takes each morning but to be deliberate in paying close attention to things you wouldn't necessarily look at.
I actually wouldn't wait for feeling creatively inert to adopt this kind of practice. If it is a regular practice, it has preventative potential.
The author Julia Cameron, who also wrote a popular book for writers called The Artist's Way, calls the regular habit of such "excursions" Artists dates, an appointment with oneself to do something new and interesting that isn't art.
There is a guy named Todd Henry who consults with creative businesses, like design firms, who encourages specifically what he calls "unnecessary creating." He encourages people to build into each week a period of goofing around with a creative medium not their own.  So a writer might draw or a painter might write a haiku or a potter might sing. The point is to choose something different so that there is no performance pressure in it and so that one is effectively using different physical and mental channels.
Einstein used to pick up a violin. Richard Feynman played bongo drums and painted. In neither case were these simply pastimes. having more of an instrumental function.
 

I think that the best thing to do when a person is out of good ideas, the creative block part of the question, is to do something off of ones normal beaten path, or even on ones beaten path but with an uncommon style of attention.
Off the beaten path could be visiting a new place, reading a new book, or attending an event one would ordinarily never pursue. How could one not get some ideas from that? Revisiting ones beaten path might be to walk that same familiar route one takes each morning but to be deliberate in paying close attention to things you wouldn't necessarily look at.
I actually wouldn't wait for feeling creatively inert to adopt this kind of practice. If it is a regular practice, it has preventative potential.
The author Julia Cameron, who also wrote a popular book for writers called The Artist's Way, calls the regular habit of such "excursions" Artists dates, an appointment with oneself to do something new and interesting that isn't art.
There is a guy named Todd Henry who consults with creative businesses, like design firms, who encourages specifically what he calls "unnecessary creating." He encourages people to build into each week a period of goofing around with a creative medium not their own.  So a writer might draw or a painter might write a haiku or a potter might sing. The point is to choose something different so that there is no performance pressure in it and so that one is effectively using different physical and mental channels.
Einstein used to pick up a violin. Richard Feynman played bongo drums and painted. In neither case were these simply pastimes. having more of an instrumental function.
 

I recently discovered that (Sheet) vinyl flooring makes great easy to cut stamps for making impressions, not so much for picking up color, but I'll be putting color into them and wiping back like Pres mentioned in the topic. With scissors I was able to cut out this in about 20 min with only one boo-boo I had to fix. So far it's working great for stamping clay, and reasonably well for cloth using craft paint. 
Use thin plastic wrap, better yet those clear plastic produce bags from the grocery store over the clay or the vinyl tends to stick toit. 
 

In your question I see two lines, the line between first and second and between second and toss.
There are some standards I think should be relevant to anyone making pottery for sale. For example, if it doesn't work for its intended function or work safely for that function, or if you know it will not be as robust in use as your items typically are (like the interior crack situation you describe), it is tossed (or repurposed as shards for mosaic or something) rather than sold as a second. 
The line between first and second needs to vary by person.  One potter's best ever pot might be a complete embarrassment to a highly, highly proficient potter.   These two will be selling their work at very different price points to account for the great difference in quality. 
That very high quality potter should not even sell as a second something that looks like the work of a far less proficient one.
But the less technically developed potter shouldn't be embarrassed to sell pots that represent his best work in the moment just because he hopes at some point to be, and be considered, highly skilled.  It is very important that pottery is accessible to people across a range of price points, and that purpose is best met when different potters work in different niches.
 

assembled and ready for a gallery show.

Pres, the wedding jar is just gorgeous.

Wedding jar completed except for cleanup a little after it sets up some more.
 
best,
Pres

The tactile aspect is huge, the feeling of creating the three dimensional object in space so directly. This is why it matters to me also which clay I use.
There is something too of raising the object on the wheel from a lump to a functional form with a combination of use of hands and the spin of the wheel that evokes life bursting forth from the Earth, like a seedling breaking ground and pushing upward with nurturing, regardless of the outside climate.
For me the process is not automatic, so I also enjoy the concentration it entails.

I don't know whether this is what you are asking,  but if you look just below the title for this thread, also in this ICAN forum, you will see all the past week's questions and answers.

Glazing today, bisque is just turned off. Glaze load goes in tomorrow, then another on Tuesday. This is today load that I have finished glazing though the pic was taken this morning before.
 
 
best,
Pres
 
 
 
 
 
 

My workbench is full of ugly bisque again. I really is my least favourite stage. But a week and a half ago, I decided it would be a good idea to document some new compost buckets before I was packing them up to go to a sale. These are much nicer pictures!
Before you make fun of me for my product staging, I was legit making soup stock with the Easter turkey.

(Waster donuts, take less clay than cookies) 
Mugs were my last thing on the bench today

 

I'll take a stab at this, Lee.  The things that make the second maybe more appealing to a woman than a man might be: 1) A flat rather than bowl-like shape makes a collection of rings, pins, and earrings less likely to end up in a tangled heap at the bottom. No one cares if keys and coins end up in a heap. 2) The lacy-type appearance of the decoration of the second might be more a woman's choice than a man's.
Looking at colors,  my first thought was of my dropping my son off at college and realizing it was way, way hotter than I had expected. I asked him whether he thought I should pick him up a few cooler t-shirts at Target before I left him off. He said yes but added, "Mommy, please get neutral colors. Boys my age will be wearing mostly neutral colors."
Having written this, I called my husband over to ask which he liked better and why. He said he liked the top better. He said he didn't like the "bumpy fence-type thing "on the bottom one, while the top one looks "rustically elegant."
 

.
 

I worked with a male potter, short with potter muscles, who made tall slender mugs with narrow extruded handles. I'm a average sized woman of slender build who makes sturdy, broad-based mugs with beefy handles. Go figure.
My non-ware work, tho, is definitely more feminine looking as it usually decorated with freehand drawn and carved floral designs.

Winter tea bowls in red clay, part of a series I call "Wild Heart." They will all have a red accent somewhere on the bowl.
 I have hand-built some using a simple template that gives them a squared shape at the base above the foot ring, and I threw a couple this morning.
But it is too cold, really, to go very long at all. Today I threw wearing a thermal shirt, thermal pants, and a down vest.
 

today i had things on my workbench i would be happy to let anyone see.  hope they all make it through the next steps to finished product.
i would be happy if i could capture in the final firing that soft color of the slip.  who knows how it will look when it is finished?

I prefer quiet and the sounds of nature. Even my heaters are silent. I have a dog and two cats for company. Nice view out the window looking at the ski runs on the mountain. I use to listen to classical guitar years ago in Texas , but then I grew to prefer all the birdsongs down there. I heard a new bird song one day and discovered love birds ( real name) in a palm tree. Here I heard the song of a new to me bird. Pairs of sand hill cranes flying around the neighborhood. 
Marcia

I like the natural surrounding sounds of everything that is making sounds--birds, insects, street movements, house noises, cheap clocks, the construction yard behind me, with big vehicles going in/out & sometimes the distant sawmill, whatever music I am playing, either single CD's or a vinyl record, or a streaming thing. I don't get reception for radio in the house (dead zone between lake/mountain ridge) so I miss the NPR that used to have to keep me company when i lived elsewhere. I  especially enjoy the companionship of the studio environment itself and all the noises, smells,  and vibrations I generate by working in it.

Until about ten years ago, I usually played oldies as background to almost anything I was doing- work, leisure reading, driving, anything. 
Then I got a bulldog puppy who, when she napped, snored like a 300 pound guy.  Bullies sleep a lot, and one can hear it throughout the house. It was a beautiful sound. I used to say she was the Pavarotti of snoring. She was beautiful to look at also.
Since she died, I don't play music as background to anything other than driving. I prefer listening to the sounds of my old house, the street noise, the birds, and even the planes I can hear from inside.  My neighborhood is really quiet even though the homes aren't very far apart, so it is centering to hear the same sounds that have surrounded me these 30 plus years in this house.

Until about ten years ago, I usually played oldies as background to almost anything I was doing- work, leisure reading, driving, anything. 
Then I got a bulldog puppy who, when she napped, snored like a 300 pound guy.  Bullies sleep a lot, and one can hear it throughout the house. It was a beautiful sound. I used to say she was the Pavarotti of snoring. She was beautiful to look at also.
Since she died, I don't play music as background to anything other than driving. I prefer listening to the sounds of my old house, the street noise, the birds, and even the planes I can hear from inside.  My neighborhood is really quiet even though the homes aren't very far apart, so it is centering to hear the same sounds that have surrounded me these 30 plus years in this house.