QotW: How does your wife, husband (or significant other) and other family deal with your need to create ceramics?

[Pres]

Hi folks, running a little behind here with the QotW. However, I have been thinking a lot lately of my wife, and her participation and support over the years when dealing with clay. She puts up with a lot, from the tracking in of clay dust from the garage to the time spent alone because I am busy playing with the clay. She has even put in time during the show years helping me pack, price, set up, and take down. She has sat booths with me, and without me when I was busy getting more pots out of the kiln for the days show. She did most of the base glazing in the early years, sometimes with help form a girlfriend. Then I would put on the decoration and finishing touches. When my kiln burned out a few years ago, she was the one that told me to buy a new one and don't take too long. . . saying she would find the money. She knows that I have an itch called ceramics and that it makes me a better person when I can do it. Makes me wonder. . . . how does it work for others out there?

QotW: How does your wife, husband (or significant other) and other family deal with your need to create ceramics?

best,

Pres

[JohnnyK]

That depends...This time of the year, getting into the studio is difficult. Since Spring has sprung and everything is growing on our1.5 acre property with multiple lawns and a lot of trees, landscape maintenance is a given and I am the one who does most of that. Then there is also the farm. While the fruit trees and vegetable patch occupy about 1/4 acre, the rest of the 3/4 acre is open field, and with the abundance of rain we've had this winter and spring, it seems like keeping the wild grasses down is a forever task. So, with all that going on, if I say I'm going into the studio, I get a look that says "Seriously...with all the yardwork that has to be done?" However, regardless of "the look", I go anyway just to get the feel of the clay in my hands instead of the dirt from pulling weeds. Then there are the times when, going through a magazine, she comes across something that she likes made by another artist and excitedly suggests that I might make something similar. So, I would say she runs hot or cold...

[Mark C.]

I have tried to keep my wife out of my line of work but that said she still has done my local shows with me. I have another assistant that helps set up and down but she has helped sell. Also we have set up my Christmas s booth and knocked it down on xmas eve for many many decades (now retired for that) I only have one local show now and she will help sell-the two days . She can play in studio all she wants but I do all the studio work myself or with my assistant-priceing packing. She will ocassionall drop an order off locally. Right now she has a herniated disk so all thats ioff the table and I am doing all the heavy lifting. The garden I rototill and plant and until she heals I'm doing the whole bit. She had her own carreer (now retired ) so I have done my best to keep clay my own career . She used to do a few traveling shows but its been a decade or more on those as well now that she had done. She did do 2 my last NV show two years ago ona road trip that we saw my Nephews one year old twins. But it was the twins not the show that she came.

[LeeU]

I have no family anywhere near me & no "significant other". My daughter is on the opposite coast and is actively helpful with kicking ideas around and provides useful feedback re marketing/photography/types of items. She suggested I do the plant stakes--I hated making them but they sold like hot cakes when I needed some quick income.  My sister has worked in clay herself (totally different style/technique) and understands the craft,  which is much appreciated. I have one friend who has really gotten me through the highs & lows, from 2014 when I decided to make myself a studio, to the present when I am struggling with some limitations and trying to decide what  to do.  He has helped with logistics and sales, managed my inventory, done my spread sheets, taken reference pics, proof-read text, provided assistance with my web page, and given lots of "common man" perspective on items that I put out for public consumption. I have another friend who has sat with me at the few craft fairs/shows I've done, including all that packing/hauling/unpacking/rehauling.  He also did a lot of the chatting with people coming to see what's what and managed to sell more of my stuff than I did! As a group, they have become essential to supporting my "need to create", through thick & thin. 

[Pres]

Sometimes @LeeU, it takes a village. . . .

 

best,

Pres

[Denice]

My husband knew I was serious about clay when we met,  I was 17 he was 19.  When we married I was 21,  we bought our first house a couple of years  later and that is when I got my first kiln.  It was our first major purchase for the house,  other couples buy a refrigerator or a sofa we bought a kiln.  A year later I got a scholarship in art to Wichita State and quit working to go back to school.   He has always supported me but never liked my work,  he worked in engineering  department and my work wasn't precise and perfect enough for him.  I tried not to  let is bother me,  I had the best support otherwise.   He was always encouraging me to buy new kilns,  but I wasn't  ready to jump into the world of controllers.  Last fall  I finally jumped and bought a Paragon Caldera with a Genisis Controller,  easy to use so I ordered a LL kiln with a Genisis Controller this year.   Since my husband has retired he likes to go to the ceramic supplier with me,  he  moves my clay  and loves to unload the kiln.   Right now I am glazing a 3-D landscape mural,  some of the tiles warped or twisted,  he is at the tile saw cutting and checking them with me to see if they will work or need remade.   I only had to remake one tile among the 200 tiles of the mural.   I likewise support his passion of restoring cars,  my passion is less expensive than his but he can always sell a car if he needs the money.     Denice

[Roberta12]

My husband has always been supportive of my clay life.  I started my small business after I had retired and he retired a year later.  He takes the clay downstairs for me, helps haul greenware out of the house to the shop where I fire,  has worked some of the larger out of town shows with me (he is a good wrapper of pots).  I have made pots working around a shoulder repair, a hip replacement with a fractured femur, and a knee replacement.  So my husband has been a great help with loading and unloading the kiln.  I had an unexpected kiln repair one November and had the kiln torn apart replacing elements etc,  it was -30 degrees and 10:30 p.m with a show looming.    I was at the end of my last nerve, he came out to check on me and lend a hand.  I said, "don't you wish I had became a knitter and sold hats?"   He said, "no, that wouldn't have been nearly as interesting!"  

r

[Hulk]

My partner has (and is) supportive of my activities, and vice versa.
She knew there'd be a gap to fill once retirement became a reality; maybe family, friends, reading, home projects, biking, hiking, fishing, swimming, and volunteering wouldn't be enough.
This topic surely got me thinking about all the interests and activities my partner has supported over the years...

Any road, specifically, she allows time and space for my exploration in ceramics, expresses a more than reasonable amount of interest, and leverages the supply of (potential) gifts for family and friends. She uses wares daily and resists my attempts to clear out "bad" ware to the point that I'm much more selective now when culling what cannot be given away (much less sold) to be maybe kept for our own use, drilled to become a succulent planter, or broken. If to be drilled or broken, it has to happen now!

Thanks for sharing, hope there's more responses afore this thread slips down into the archives...

[Min]

I’ve been humming and hawing over this question, was going to pass on making a comment out of respect to those amongst us who live a single life and might be having a difficult time reading these tales of love and understanding. 

I am one of the fortunate people who has a sympathetic and understanding life partner. The respect and considerate nature we have for each other and what we do with our chosen paths isn’t something that is limited to how we spend our days make a living. We started off with student debts and stretching out the pay checks to make ends meet then as time went by found ourselves with a mortgage and 4 daughters.  Just to make things more complicated I left my well paying job to make a go of selling pots.

Being supportive isn’t just restricted to a tolerance or a shallow understanding of the trials and tribulations of working at making a living with clay and all that it involves. Does it still require an understanding and at times boatloads of patience? Hell yes! Could I do this without an understanding partner? Yup, I’m sure I could but it would be more difficult. I have deep and profound respect for people who make a go of working a lifetime in clay, especially those who do it singlehandedly.

[Kelly in AK]

My companion is my studio mate. She doesn’t complain, unless her favorite glazes are running low.