Writing blog posts is one of my favorite parts of my business. I like writing. I am a prolific journaler. Funny as it may sound, I journal more than I sketch. I just don't make time to blog, but I am trying once a week to write a post.

To make it easier for myself, I tried to think of ideas before I sit down to type. I was thinking about these new image transfer pieces and how I rush to make them, rush to photograph them, rush to sell them. I really like living with the pieces to see what works and what doesn't, mainly what feels right and what doesn't. 

I spend a lot of emotional energy creating my pottery and then poof! It goes out into the world and I never see it again. It makes me kind of sad. I look at pieces and think oh yes, I made that in the fall of 2023 when I was feeling stuck and said enough, it's just time to play! Or I look at other pieces and say oh gosh, that is such a beautiful piece, you really can't tell how much I was suffering then.

To me, it's not just looking at my pottery, it's feeling my pottery. That's why color is so important to me. Different colors elicit different moods, different seasons.

My first update with my image transfer pieces I was only going to try and sell 2 mugs and 9 plates, but my brother encouraged me to list more. I did and they sold well! I was so happy and kind of sad because I had to say goodbye to another batch. Maybe that's why I don't like packing and shipping my pottery, it's too hard to say goodbye.

I want to share with you some pieces that sold from the first image transfer update last fall - the first pieces that started this all, so they can have a proper farewell.

After spending my lunch hour crying about my fertility struggles I went back to the studio tired and sad. I had a bunch of extra plates that needed to be decorated, but really wasn't in the mood. Just do one I said to myself. It can look horrible, I don't care, they just need to be finished. Ok, I thought and decorated the plate above. Maybe because I was so worn out, my guard wasn't up, but as I peeled back the layers of colored paper I thought, well this is fun. This doesn't feel like a chore.

So I decorated another plate, even more fun!

Well, I said to myself, maybe just a few more. 

Before I knew it I was finished with all the extra plates and I didn't want to stop! I knew I was on to something very special.

I think sometimes we think that joy comes from joy and I don't think that's true. Without sadness there is no joy. If there was only joy how would you really know what it was? You know what joy is because you have felt sadness. They are intertwined. 

My therapist once told me the reason I have gotten so much out of therapy is because I'm not afraid to feel pain. It's true, I'm not. I don't know why and I can't pinpoint an event that caused me to be that way. I know that joy is always around the corner, even if the block is extra sad and long, but without allowing myself to feel sadness I also don't allow myself to feel joy. I think that's what they mean by being numb.