You have a plan. It’s a good plan. It looks like a smooth plan- you can foresee no major issues with said plan. Then you hit “Go” on the plan, and everything goes sideways.
100% of humans know this problem; many know it well. But do you all still naively believe the plan will go ‘just fine’ every time? I do. I really do, even with fully knowing how sideways things can go.
We moved from Texas to New Mexico mostly for revitalization. Our family needed a reset badly, and honestly, I didn’t fit in well in Texas from a values standpoint, which became very clear very fast. So with COVID, the hubby’s job became remote, and I was like, “let’s get out of here?!” so we did.
The house we bought is lovely; however, we didn’t know about all of the hidden issues as our inspector apparently didn’t actually try to inspect things like- the water heater only works for 10 minutes. It cannot get new water in it. The fact that the whole house was infested with termites to the point entire rooms needed to be rebuilt was also an unwelcome surprise. There is a laundry list of stuff, honestly. It was heartbreaking to start a fresh start after so much stress with this. The inspectors claim no responsibility- we tried to get them to help pay for damages they should have found and were met with legal threats because there is a line in the contract “even if the inspector misses problems due to negligence, he is not accountable and cannot be sued.” WTF, people? Did you know they put that in there?! What is the point of costly inspections?! Anyway, I digress. I had ordered my studio set up in advance, no more sharing space! I was getting my own equipment. Slab roller, Extruder, Kiln, Kiln Shelves- I needed everything outside of my wheel, which I’ve had. I established my business in New Mexico and turned my garage into a studio space while waiting for everything to arrive in 4-6 weeks. I did not expect that stuff to arrive super late! Like really late- 9 months! UGH! I should have known life likes to throw me!
I’ll probably still expect the next plan to go as planned- I’m such a sucker in this aspect. Normally I would call myself a realist, but I expect miracles.
Thankfully, I have not been a complete slacker all these months. I’ve been working on taking some jewelry classes to be able to set some nice porcelain pieces I had made, learned to weld, refreshed my screen printing skills, learned a 3d printer to use my 3d modeling skills with (wax printing for casting some custom jewelry YAAAAAS!), laser engraver and cutter, CNC plasma cutter, and other things. I like to be able to make whatever pops into my head, which is probably why I often have a hard time figuring out what I want to do with my days- too much to choose from when you are a Jack of all Trades! But I learned stuff and worked on some projects that I’m not quite ready to sell, and my son had me distracted some with this NFT craze. More coming soon, sigh. LOL.
The worst part, though, with all of the delays, was really losing my coping skill for so many months. I love the art- anything creative, but pottery/clay sculpting is where I can play and be looser, and it really helps me get through some hard stuff. Not having that seriously sucks, and I fall easily into depression. Yes, I know everyone was depressed with COVID, but it wasn’t just that for some. The week before COVID came to the US was the trial for my daughter’s child rapist/molester; before that was well- the trauma from what happened to her. He got 28 years, which still does not seem enough when you see all of her hospitalizations and suicide attempts from the trauma. The emotional aspect of living with PTSD is tough; it’s like living with a bomb. We hoped the trial would help set her free of some of the burden and allow her to heal through therapy, but it’s just not that simple. The cost of her mental health medical care is why I’m spending time doing NFTs and anything else that may influx money by some miracle. It’s been seriously rough dealing with my feelings, her feelings, my hubby’s feelings, my son’s feelings, a million other people’s opinions over it, etc. Without my clay play, ugh. My business has the name that it does for a reason.
So what now? Aside from tedious things like website updates, I need to figure out a work schedule to cover everything I do and figure out the order for doing them while helping her get through school and deal with the daily. I’m out of the habit, so I need to reestablish that. I’m a little stressed that I haven’t touched clay in so long and the effect of that, along with moving to a dry environment from a super humid one and how that will change throwing/sculpting. At least clay can be reused if you goof! I figure the past few months of life have thrown me; maybe if I start doing the throwing, things will rebalance?! Throw or be thrown.
My current studio to-do:
- Get back throwing and get this new beautiful kiln running regularly.
- Several jewelry projects are in work, including some porcelain pieces I’m mounting, etc.
- Commission wrapped stone piece (Jewelry)
- 3 NFT projects- because I can.
- Veggie Killah store – more designs to create, more to add, many to update from a tedious store standpoint out of stock issues with specific product choices. This is why I really want to start screenprinting my own- but no time!
- Two cut metal projects- one personal address sign, one large sculpt
- Art cathartic Kaleidoscope-based items- I plan to take some of the designs more commercial and offer swim suites and other items here and on Amazon.
- Art Cathartic – shirts etc. for pottery and other art
- Six clay sculpture projects in the plans, four social statement type pieces, and the others are fun ones
- 1 sculpture needs a repaint; I’m not happy with some of it, so redo.
- Four commission pieces- Large mug, spoon rest, candlesticks, bonsai planter
- Make a new sculpture table. The wood one I had made myself was damaged in the move and no longer would sit flat, and sculpting on a tilt seems like a horrible idea. I’m going to weld up and powder coat a metal one. Why not if you can, right?!
- A large painting in the works- well, the canvas is gessoed, and I have my layout in a grid, so kind of in the works.
- I’m probably forgetting a million things but let’s start here… time to start being the one throwing. It’s time to get creative.