My studio as many of you know, is a large tin shed. It is a wonderfully chaotic place that is all mine and I adore having the space and the freedom to make as much mess as I like.
I normally let my studio get to the point where every single surface is covered with something important, like rocks, empty tim tam packets and last weeks newspapers. As I surround myself with all these very useful and necessary things my working space shrinks and I find I am working in a tiny space six inches by six inches wide.
Once the creative cycle of chaos is complete and the kiln has been packed for the final glaze firing, I look at the disaster zone and run away to the house and faff about on the computer or in the garden. Anything will do as a distraction from having to clean the studio. I offer to accompany my husband on a fishing trip or suggest we go out to lunch, sometimes I even fly interstate to visit friends.
Anything will do as long as I DO NOT HAVE TO CLEAN UP AFTER MYSELF.
BUT sadly I am too poor to be able to afford minions or a cleaner. Once the kiln has cooled down enough to be unpacked, I find I need some space to array all my wares so I can admire the fruits of my labour and I am forced to clean. All by myself.
This is about as tidy and organised as my studio ever gets and sometimes this level of clean can last for as long as a whole week.
So dear internets, keeping this idea of chaos firmly to the forefront of your mind, can you imagine the look of absolute horror that crossed my husbands face when I asked him to help me move a trestle table into the house?
And not just any old hidden part of the house. Oh no, I needed to move a trestle table into my kitchen.
I can hear you asking why I needed a trestle table in my kitchen.
We had a balmy start to winter this year, climate change is really working its magic down here in Tasmania. Autumn was sunny and mild and so lulled into a false sense of security by a string of 18 degree days I blithely worked on, making large pots and having a tremendous amount of fun. I flung clay around the place with gay abandon, I made a glorious mess, I was happy until…
Until winter hit with a furious icy blast.
We had a string of days that started with ridiculous temperatures of minus six that slowly crept up to 3 degrees max.
WE HAD SNOW.
(not this much snow, this is last years snow but you get the general idea dear internets, it was bloody cold)
After about a week of playing candy crush saga and whining loudly about the freezing weather I decided that direct action was needed and so I informed The Spouse of my decision. Once he stopped rolling his eyes and giving me that look, Jeff helped me set up the trestle table in the middle of my warm, warm kitchen.
The large work that I am making is on hold as it is just too cold for my arthritic hand and even though I appreciate the sentiment “suffer for my art” I am not at the stage of having lived with my arthritic wrist for long enough to be able to ignore the pain the cold causes.
I played around with the video function on my phone as I was decorating this piece and I shall upload a short 30 second video once I have finished editing it.
The large work is in the cold, cold, COLD studio slowly drying and I am down in the warm, warm, WARM house faffing about on twitter and facebook at the same time as I am making small things and drinking cups of tea in comfort.
A public conversation with The Koori Woman on twitter had me making ceramic skull beads in lieu of voodoo dolls for her. The Koori Woman had written about her anger with Tony Abbott declaring himself to be The Aboriginal Prime Minister, I made her some Abbott voodoo skulls using Southern Ice porcelain so they would be blindingly white and I gave them red eyes as a hat tip to Tony’s speedos. Who says faffing about on the internet at work is unproductive?
My grandchildren came to visit and were delighted to see CLAY in THE HOUSE NANNY, there is CLAY IN THE HOUSE. There was much joyful shouting interspersed with happy making of masterpieces.
In the photo above, the grubby clay marks on my grand daughter Amy’s jumper, makes me smile so much as it is the exact spot I get grubby when I am working.
And that is a very condensed recap of my wintery ceramic journey.
I am linking up with this week the ever gorgeous Adriana Christianson for the Mud Colony Blog Link up
How are you going this winter? Are you cold? Does your husband roll his eyes at you at the same time as he reluctantly enables you to make a giant mess?
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Oh my GADNESS
I LOVE this post !!!!
And that
studio of
yours is
RIDONKULOUSLY
huge …
*cries* xxx
I wrote this thinking of you. Glad you liked it. and the space isnt really that big 🙂
Oh yeah RIGHT Ms Frog ..You’ve seen MY space ?
Your space is lovely and compact Adriana. COMPACT is good *grins*
Still waiting for snow here, you lucky thing:)
That was last years snow in the photo, I just wanted to show off my dog again 🙂 We had snow that settled for a bit and the roads were frozen for days but no lovely photogenic snow. So don’t feel too envious
I’d clean for free but I don’t want to be upsetting whatever organisational system you have going in there. Plus it’s way too cold down there. And I’m lazy. And my lounge is a comfortable 21 degrees with the heater on medium and the doors closed.
It is a super complicated organisational system as well River 🙂 x
Your winter is our summer…which I am loving! I sympathize with your cold studio and arthritis…..but what an incredibly wonderful space you have. You found the best solution….move to the warm!
Love those skulls! Is your Prime Minister really aborigine? Golly…do you think he is envying Mr. Obama being our first black (well, truthfully 1/2 black) president?
It is a good space Smartcat and thank you for the compliment regarding my skulls 🙂
Tony Abbott is the current leader of the opposition (he would be a republican) and he declared that he would be the Aboriginal Prime Minister meaning in his typically condescending way, that he would look after the interests of Australia’s Aborigines for them, so they didn’t have to worry their little black heads over the important things as a big white man would do their thinking for them. Tony Abbott also likes to run about the place in a pair of red speedos ( swinmming trunks) and hold media interviews after he has competed in a triathlon. I think he sees himself as Australia’s manly man answer to Putin.
As for our current Prime Minister he is a career diplomat and meglomaniac who spent the last three years leaking information to the media in order to destabilise the government( that he was a part of) so that he could stage an internal coup and unseat our first female prime minister, thus taking the top job for himself.
Messy, Smart Cat it was messy.
We heard about the P.M all the way on the other side of the world. As for Mr. Abbot……does he really think it’s appealing to see a grown man, who should know better, running around in a red Speedo. Shades of Anthony Weiner!
Brill post Kim, among all your other great qualities you are a very entertaining writer. That was great. I hope to get a post together today but the computer is in hospital and the iPad is too slow for my brain. By the way messy or clean your shed is massive compared to mine. Massive!
Thank you Elaine, I am a story teller first and foremost. I can’t write on my tablet either it is all wrong so I understand the not writing. I need to be sitting here at the desktop otherwise I can not think at all.
How wonderful to have a space of your own for your creativity! Hey, there! It’s Kristy from Pampers and Pinot, and I’m back blogging at Love and Blasphemy!
I wish you could send us some of your cold and snow. We’re in the middle of a heat wave with unhealthy air quality and too many cars and tourists. I love the picture of your young clay artists. My David gets dirty in that same spot, too, but in his case it’s concrete and usually permanent. That’s an awesome studio.
I’m so glad I put up a link on my blog to your blog and you found it!
Your so lucky to have a whole workshop to yourself to do the thing you love to do.