My second half of my second year has been a compact experience of knowledge, distractions, entertainment and enjoyment. I feel to have achieved a large body of work this semester and much knowledge, more of which was due to experience, trial and error.
I have learnt that no matter what precautions one may take, one must prepare themselves for the worst when they keep their work in the kiln and if it has blasted then no matter what happens to it, the worst hasn't happened. I have, to some extent learned not to love each piece that that I make to an extent where I either cannot critique it or see it crack or break.
I feel that an introduction into high fire and wood fire glazes has opened up to me an entire field that I was very hesitant about. It has made me love wood firing even more and every time I experience results of wood fired pieces I can't help but be amazed. I feel that due to the intensive wood firings that I have gone through, I feel I am capable of handling an entire wood firing however I feel I need to have done more readings.
Apart from all this I feel I am susceptible to distractions. I have realized that for me to work at my optimum I still need to learn to cope up with distractions and maybe try to express them in my work rather than not be able to work at all. I also feel that I could have done a lot better in some assignments and I had found myself wishing to have had more time for some assignments since they were so interesting but I felt I couldn't do them justice.
I had most enjoyed the totem pole assignment. I felt that was my best assignment this term despite the fact that it cracked entirely I also loved half of the naked clay assignment while its other half would be my weakest assignment. The assignment on the moulds was also very interesting but I had no time to think or to enjoy it as was the case with the naked clay project.
So overall, this semester and this year was a lovely year for me. I feel I have learned a lot from both the visiting and the permanent faculty in very contrasting ways and I feel I can approach them with much more ease then I could before. I have learnt to love my studio, the atmosphere, and the people I work with, since the day isn't complete until I do not have a brush of all of them.
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