Times article on pottery workshop popularity

[Hulk]

Times allows limited (ten?) article reads per month for non-subcribers...

Pottery Workshops Fill Up as People Travel to Connect Over Clay - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Interesting read, e.g. “Clay is the opposite of the cellphone,”

Be sure to check the comments as well.

As much as I truly enjoyed being in a community Studio*, the dust and artificial scents (hair products, washing solution, dryer sheets, cologne, perfume, oooh the et cetera) pose a looming ...barrier.
 

*On arrival (always waay early), a slow tour of all the cubbies, the drying cupboard, glaze racks, everything! As the semester moves ahead, so does everyone's work.
As the other students arrive, visiting and banter.
Each hour, a new selection of music (when the instructor isn't lecturing).
Watching how each person works a bit differently!
 

Added: another Times article
Can Old-World Horezu Pottery Survive Modern Tastes? - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Edited June 8, 2023 by Hulk
barrier, another Times article

[LeeU]

Decent article, liked the links especially.  I scrolled the comments-they were all over the place. I liked one from somebody talking about the attraction maybe being more about touching physical material,  rather than hanging w/people, noting that even paper was removed from him via working on the computer. 

[Hulk]

"Oh yes, pass for most of us, sending around with strangers making clay pots, no thank you"

"What's fascinating is the types of items fellow students make. ... Time, imagination and a willingness to fail - none of us cares if we make something ugly or lame - have freed us to create. It's an exhilarating experience."

[Denice]

I prefer to work alone,  every  time I take a class I end up teaching.   One summer I enrolled my son and his best friend in a throwing class,  I enrolled also so I could teach them how to throw.   The first day of class the teacher showed up with her hands and arms covered in bandages,  she had tried to break up  a dog fight.   I didn't get to work with my son that much,  busy teaching  the class to throw.  He  did throw a bowl by the end of the class.    The next class I tried to take was tile making,  I had been making tile for a few years.  From reading the brochure I thought I would learn some new methods.   First class the teacher told us that the class had been doubled booked accidently  and the teacher who was suppose to help was sick.   The students were suppose to bring their tile design and  something from nature to work with.   I was the only one who did that out of 30 people,  the teacher asked me if could help teach the class.  I agreed the summer college class was nothing but chaos.  I had my tiles made in  less than a day,  didn't have anything else to do.   The college was a two hour drive from my home,  the fees for the class included a dorm room for the week.    I stayed thinking that it would get better.     Denice

[Bam2015]

Nice article. Nothing like a clay community. I wish that real estate wasn't so expensive where I live otherwise I would start a community studio/coop. 

Betty

[Callie Beller Diesel]

If anyone is past their 10 article limit, try typing the name of the article directly into your browser. Often you can bypass the paywall on articles that have been made available for promo this way.

It’s interesting to see both the pros and cons of communal studios in the comments section. The upvotes on the assorted comments are revealing too. The person who was complaining about perfume only has 1, after 3 weeks of the article being live. The more positive ones have a LOT more.