My First Formal Instruction

I HAVE THIS VISION of creating complete gifts. Pots with some of my favorite things in them. Candles, orchids, cut roses, sedum are the few I have been dreaming about. I ordered some English roses for my thirty-fifth birthday and they should arrive airmail from the mainland soon. Maybe even Monday, which already is looking to be a stellar day. At an orchid show this afternoon, I met a potter. We sat in her booth (she was selling pots) for quite a piece of time. She gave me the inside scoop! Who's doing what and where for however much and when? Who's company is enjoyable, how long is the commute? She explained the workings of the pottery guild in Honolulu, which in her well informed opinion was the only way to go. Turns out there is one thirteen week session for each of the four season. And classes start on Monday! She was nearly positive they were all filled full up! Then she spotted a guild member walking by and asked him. He was pretty sure there was one spot in one Monday night class taught by Steve so-and-so. We were speaking insessantly when another potter came strolling along with the tiniest orchid specimens. He is in the Monday class and was certain the only remaining spot was in Steve's monday night class. Suggesting we call to make certain and send me off to Honolulu as soon as the traffic would allow. And so it came to be, my first real instruction on the wheel, thirteen lovely Monday nights on the other side of the island. AND as much studio time as needed, any time of the day. I do not miss Honolulu side, all the traffic and skyscrapers, but it is there the sun sets . . . and I do do miss those tropical sunsets. Now I suppose I'll catch a few.

A Place to Pot

I am settled now in a sweet little neighborhood on the bluffs in Kailua. Duplexes fill both sides of the street which gently curves until it reaches it's dead end. There are some 30 children living on this street, so there are many little people wandering about. Our street is quiet in the mornings and playful in the afternoon. I have a good view of the goings on down there from my second story living room. The entire set up affords me quite a bit of quiet. Which of course is my favorite thing in all the world! I have my studio coming together down stairs in my tidy finished garage. There is a utility sink, praise the Lord, and some nice white cupboards previously installed on the nicely finished white walls. It looks like everything is going to fit quite well.A private lanai sits off my back bedroom and a little square deck is just below it. Maybe this week I'll go to Honolulu for some clay and see about trying to throw back there. It would be quite solitary and refreshing. Just a few feet from the deck, a spindly tree and wild grass covered hill jets up, so there is nearly nothing back there. . . Just me, our Jackson chameleons and my wheel.