I am a beginner - a lifelong learner starting out on another experience which I hope will last a "lifetime" in whatever time I have left on this earth. I have always loved pottery, but it was not until moving to
North Carolina that I was able to find the time and the right avenue for learning this craft. And, so, for the last year I have regularly gone to the studio of Dan Finch and continually work at learning and honing skills in turning and glazing pottery. I say work, but it is not like work at all. I find shaping clay into decorative and functional wares as being both calming and exhilarating at the same time. Maybe it is because I am creating something. Maybe it is because I know that I can always start a piece over if it doesn't look the way I want it to. Maybe it is because clay is so flexible that , even when it does not look like what I started out to make, it allows me to continue and turn out something just as good or better. Maybe it is because I am a beginner and every pot is new and exciting. I read somewhere that every time someone sits down at a wheel, he or she is a beginner - maybe that is the real reason I am drawn to pottery. I don't have to worry about each piece being perfect, because each piece is different and unique - perfect in its own way.
I have been encouraged to start a blog as a way of communicating my experience in clay. What I hope is that this site will serve as a record of my progress, a gallery of work I produce, and a way of me sharing the joys of pottery with anyone who wishes to visit this page, as well as sharing some of my other interests with the world.
Chris Joyce
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