QotW: How does your family feel/act about your journey with clay?

[Pres]

Over the years, my journey with clay has been with many teachers, and students. At home, my wife would often help with glazing pots for firings by doing base coat dipping, and cleaning bottoms. My children were never really interested in working with the clay. My wife has been of the opinion over the years that I had to work with the clay, throw pots and be creative in ceramics. It has been a need to keep me happy. When the last kiln died after 35+ years, I was going to hang it up, but she bought a new kiln insisting that she wasn't going to allow me to just hang around the house!

QotW:  How does your family feel/act about your journey with clay?

 

best,

Pres

[JohnnyK]

My wife of 56 years has a "take it or leave it" attitude. Most of the time it is a "leave it" point of view, and she says, "It's your thing, not something I'm really interested in." That is, until she sees something she likes in a magazine (then she'll ask me if I can copy it), or when she would like something for gifts, like the time around 8 years ago...She likes to give Christmas presents to our customers and friends. As a contribution to the effort, she wanted me to make 25 bowls as containers for the cookies or caramel popcorn she was making (same bowl shape, different glazes). I got the same request this year, but, fortunately, the list has dwindled considerately, and I'll be doing 8 -10 bowls this time around. Many times, though, she'll see something she likes and suggests that I might try making the piece to sell at my farm stand.

[Chilly]

Other half is into metal and wood, so he understands.

I also play with fibre - spinning, dyeing, weaving, knitting and sewing fabrics.

 

[Denice]

My husband has been my biggest supporter,  he may not like everything I make,  he is a great cheerleader.   My sisters think I am the greatest potter in the world,  I prefer the honest feedback that my husband gives.   I have tried to get him to work in my studio but he refuses.  He is much better at sketching and drawing than I am,  he made a living being a technical illustrator and writer.  He wrote a coloring book of Santa Claus going to the moon to make some extra money.   He also wrote instruction manuals for small companies in the evening.  He drops by my studio and borrows a tool and tells me what I mistakes I made.  I drop by the garage and pick out the colors inside and out for the car he is restoring.  I also may casually mention the small dents he has missed.  I have to do that to keep him grounded.  Denice

[Kelly in AK]

I have the most supportive partner I could imagine. We met through clay, some ten years ago, and have built a studio together. She had very little experience and extreme zeal, a real beginner. I had a great deal of experience and was like, “Are you sure this is what you want? Clay is messy. It’s heavy. Dusty, mucky, laborious, unpredictable, frustrating, and difficult.” Of course she said yes.

We’ve grown together through the years. Her work outsells mine probably five-to-one now, not a beginner anymore.

Going back a little further, my parents were supportive when I was a young man. Not financially so much, but they never discouraged me doing clay as long as I was working. Even though I wasn’t making much money, they said if I knew how to work and how to learn I would be able to take care of myself. 

[Hulk]

Immediate family is interested and supportive; extended family ranges from tolerate to very interested.

Critically important, I believe, to be passionately engaged with something(s)*, perhaps not the point of exhaustion each day, but definitely enough to run the battery down on a regular basis.

*Fortunate, we are, to be comfortable in the basics and essentials, and hence able to pivot to creative expression.

[LeeU]

Family is mostly gone and they never did get why I would go into art rather than something useful, like either find a husband or learn touch typing and be a secretary. Estranged from my one sibling.  My daughter is super supportive, actually interested, and full of reasonable ideas/suggestions. She likes hearing about processses, glaze attributes, structural issues, marketing strategies etc. We do Zoom (she's on the other coast) and have a mutual Show and Tell--my latest ceramics and her latest sewing project .  Close friends are moderately interested, mostly in the vein of "I like that color" on finished pieces, or, the dreaded "Could you make me a...." (fill in whatever is annoying to make and outside of my creative interest). They are quite supportive tho.