Mommy therapy

For the past few years, I have been taking art classes as a means of therapy.  Mommy therapy to be exact. There comes a time every day...usually around 5 pm, that I want to pull my hair out.  And just when I can't take it anymore, my kids are fast asleep.  Peace and quiet.  But have you every watched Groundhog Day?  Sometimes I feel like Bill Murray.  5pm comes every day, and usually just as crazy as the previous day.

So instead of paying a lovely person hundreds of dollars to hear my woes, I decided to sign up for an art class.  I think every stay at home mom should sign up for an art class.  Vanderbilt offers art classes to the community at a really low cost.  My first class was painting with acrylics, then drawing with live models, digital photography and most recently, pottery on the wheel.  Painting was fun but not my thing.  I found that I really enjoyed working with charcoal in the drawing class and the photography class was not much fun late at night.  But I loved pottery!

I made over 20 pieces of...art?  I figured the more things I tried to make, the more I would learn.  Every Thursday night my hubby came home early so that I could rush out the door and get dirty.  I couldn't get enough!  I loved working with the clay and learning the MANY steps to throwing pottery.  Once you get the piece to look how you want it on the wheel (which is soooo much harder then I expected), you have to wait a few days and then work on "trimming" the piece.  You need to shave off extra clay and help the art piece sit properly.  Next it is fired for the first time and becomes a "bisqued" piece of work.  Next you "glaze" the art piece.  Glazing looks like milky paint that doesn't necessary look the color it will be at the end.  You dip or paint your bisqued piece and then have it fired in the kiln again.


So with each step, there were a million things to learn.  And a million things to mess up.  This is one of my first bowls.  It is only 1 inch high and very lop-sided.  And the speckled glazing just doesn't look quite right.  This was a big fail.

By the end, I finally made a few bowls that I was proud of.  Here is my new cereal bowl:

And this round bowl that I love...but don't know what I will put in it!

And my all time favorite peice from this class is this leaf bowl.  It turned out exactly as I had it in my mind.  Luckily my instructor helped me with trimming the bottom so that it would sit evenly.  Otherwise it might have cracked in the kiln!

I also learned how to make mugs.  My first mug is in the middle.  Not the best thing in the world.  It was also my first attempt at a handle.  But I got a little better and made Caleb and Abby these mugs.  We use them every day.

I had so much fun making different pots, bottles, vases, creamers, etc.

I can't wait to take the class again.  I feel like there is a lot to learn!  Every step has many details. This was very fulfilling...in so many ways.  It was a great way for me to make it through the hard days of parenting.  But there was this element of artistic release that meant more then just getting a break from the kids.  It is so wonderful to do something that has no need...to create just because you want to create.  Can you tell that I am hooked?