Keep On Learning

Sometimes a teacher will say something that sticks with us our entire life.  When a teacher knows this it’s often a great joy to them. What’s the point of teaching if your students don’t take something useful away when they leave the class. One of my pottery teachers, Lucille Scurti told me to keep on learning when I graduated from her class. We had dinner together back in January and she told me the same thing. We talked about workshops that she has taken over the years, some very recently.  We talked about how sometimes people don’t understand how a professional, accomplished artist and teacher would spend time and money to attend classes and workshops.  It’s about learning and growing. It’s about getting feedback from your peers. It’s about continually trying to improve yourself and your craft.

Callanwolde Fine Arts Center

This week I started taking a soda firing class with my friend Lora Rust at Callanwolde Fine Arts Center. I think this is going to be fun. We started by helping to unload the soda kiln from another class.  This was a great learning opportunity for the students who have not previously fired in soda. It was also a great opportunity for me to start to learn this kiln and plan my pots. Honestly, if every class and workshop on atmospheric firing (soda, salt, reduction, wood firing) started out this way I think it would shorten the learning curve dramatically. It will be interesting to see what happens.

I walked into the class with no plans, no ideas, nothing. I walked out planning a new surface idea for the mishima pots I make. I’m pretty excited to get that started. Stay tuned to see what happens, it might be exciting for all of us.

What do you do to keep on learning?

Check out the gallery page - Future Relics Gallery by Lori Buff