Another Term Winds Down—My Novel Freshman Experience

Burlon Craig Face Jug

I signed up for a spring class last week. Another pottery class. If you're counting...my sixth. It's my third independent study (officially individualized studio) class. I'll confess, the flexibility works well with balancing the minions and the rest of the family. And I like spending a term going in my own direction. Professor H. makes a great advisor. He offers opinions and some direction, but let's me be in the driver's seat. I'm already feeling sad about spring being my last ceramic's class. Of course, by the time the class is over, I should have my own studio up and running! Yep. I've got studio glee!

But here's what being a class of one is missing...reports. Yeah, I know, some people might think that's a plus, but over the out-of-school decades I forgot how much I love doing a deep dive on a topic.  We have to do a report on a ceramic artist in a week. I did a presentation on Rob Bernard my first term. It was supposed to be five to ten minutes, but I had pages and pages of notes. Interesting facts I was sure everyone should know. (My daughter assured me that not only did the kids in class not want to know, but there was a chance my glee over reports annoyed them! If it did, they were kind enough to feign interest. LOL) I did manage to keep it to ten minutes, but would have loved to have gone longer. I left so much unsaid. This time, I'm doing a presentation on Burlon Craig. I'm trying to keep it short...but it's still hard! He's equally interesting and exciting. He is known

Holly Face Jugs

 for his face jugs in the Catawba Valley in NC (my southern roots are firmly planted just north of there).  I bought a great book, The Final Kiln Opening, about his last sale which was so cool. And I bought a book on that folk tradition, based more in Georgia called Brothers in Clay. Equally engrossing reading...alright engrossing in a totally geeky way. LOL I've got pages and pages of notes.

Ten minutes?  I have to fit all this in ten minutes? The trouble is real. LOL

To add to my condensing everything into a less than ten minute presentation, I found YouTube videos from a PBS show called Folkways. They showed Burlon in his studio and firing his kiln. You can find them at Burlon on Folkways. They were fantastic! The second video talked to other local ceramic artists who were related to, or knew, Craig. They watched him work. I wish I'd discovered him sooner and could have visited his studio as well!

I fell in love with face jugs my second term. I wrote a bit about them here.

Holly's Game of Thrones inspired Face Vase

Holly's Jug

 I've done a bunch since then. For me they're a connection to my southern roots and to be honest, I just think they're ugly cute! LOL And art inspires art. School inspires study. I've been trying my hand at some folk art painting and one of my favorites is Burlon's kiln firing. It's obviously rough, but I've done a few versions of it. I love the flames!

Holly's Burlon's kiln painting.

I've been wanting to buy a Burlon Craig face jug but they're a little rich for my blood. But I did find one of his swirl teapots. It should get here soon. I'm soooo excited! I'll post a picture when it arrives.

I don't know what I'm going to take up at school next fall. Maybe some more art classes. I'm working toward a degree...maybe. I plan to just continue taking classes that interest me, and if I get close to a degree, I'll take some of the must-take classes. At this rate, it'll be a decade from now. But hey, for me, it's not really the destination (a degree) that matters. It's the journey. And so far, I've enjoyed every step of My Novel Freshman Experience journey!

Holly

PS Just in time for Thanksgiving, another school story...this one from a PTA mom's point-of-view. Once Upon a Thanksgiving is on sale!

Back to School—My Novel Freshman Experience

School starts for me on the 23rd.  Yep, I'm going back to school!  I'm so excited.  I wanted to finish my summer's work before classes started, and the face jug in the video was my final project.  I know some of you have said they're ugly...and they are.  That's the point really.

Why do I like making something ugly?  Well, I think they're kind ugly-cute.  But more than that, for me their a way to connect to my history.  I've been working on-and-off on a family tree for a few years and I've found I have deep Appalachian roots.  And face jugs, though they've been discovered in Mesopotamia, have deep mountain roots.  I like that connection.  My son asked for one.  I made two, so he'll get his choice.

I am just taking once class again, and yes, it is a Ceramics Class again.  LOL  At this rate, I'll have finished my first freshman term by next summer.

So this might not be the fastest degree in history.  Frankly, I have no clue what degree I ultimately want.  But I'm having fun and that is a big part of why I'm back to school.  And I'm learning so much.  

What did my first term teach me?  I love ceramics as much as I thought I would.  If you've read, Just One Thing, you'll see a bit of my longing for a pottery class.  But more than that, I'm loving the freedom of clay.  I am not an expert, and I don't expect to be.  I'm experimenting.  I'm trying new things.  Those Santas were inspired by my father-in-law.  He carved his in wood.  I tried to replicate some of them.  And then I expanded and made my own.    Those small jugs with the weird mold looking splotches?  Those were an experiment.  I've done a lot of black and I'm trying more colors.


But more than all that, my first year back at school reminded me how much I love learning.  I mean love it.  I don't know a lot about much, but I know a little about a ton of things.  As a writer, that's important.  When I wrote that pottery scene in Just One Thing, I'd never wedged clay.  I researched it and tried to translate it.  Those bits of lots of things work their way into my stories.

So what are my goals this term?  To get better.  I started wheel throwing over the summer.  I am better than when I started, but I'm not good...I want to get better.  And I want to do more carving.  I've discovered I really like that aspect of claying.  I'd like to make at least one container with a lid.  And I really want to play with glazing and underglazing.  I started painting because of the claying.  I want to work more on how to translate one art to the other and back again.  That picture above of a small jug I made trying to replicate the Erie beach scene I'd painted.

Back to school!

I'm so happy!

I plan a lot of claying this fall!

And maybe that's my biggest lesson...the one I want to share with all of you.  I think I've found the true fountain of youth...never stop learning.  Maybe your thing isn't ceramics.  Maybe it's a real class.  Maybe it's painting.  Maybe it knitting.  Maybe it's a lecture on history.  Maybe...

Whatever it is it's individual, but I hope whatever your Maybe is you find it and love learning about it!

So keep an eye out for more of My Novel Freshman Experiences.  Just think, in a couple years, I might be writing about My Novel Sophomore Experience!  LOL

Holly

Polished Off

PS. Don't forget my new release Polished Off: A Maid in LA Mystery is out! Check out Quincy's newest adventure!

And there's a salespalooza this month. Check out:
Just One Thing
Hold Her Heart
Everything But...series

Don't want to miss any new releases in the future? Subscribe to my Newsletter!! I'll keep you up-to-date and I frequently have something special for subscribers!

As always, you can find my ebooks, paperbacks, hardbacks, audiobooks and available through Kindle Unlimited.  They're also available in a lot of other languages. I hope there's something for all of you!

Find my books at:

Amazon

Kobo

Radish Fiction

iBooks

B&N

Google Play

BAM

Audible

In Erie, you can find my books on the shelf at Werner Books! Stop in, check them out and tell them I said hi!

Wording and Arting...maybe Crafting is the right word?—My Novel Freshman Experience

Words have power...that was the premise of my Everything But books.  I think it's true.  

I rarely refer to myself as an author. It feels too pretentious a word. I'm a writer.  As a working writer, I write for food not some higher purpose.  Okay, sometimes I write for a bit of a higher purpose, but mainly because my kids like to eat.

Basically, I play with words for a living.

For years I've joked that I'm not writing...I'm Wording.

So I guess that means, now that I've gone back to school, when I go to the studio I'm Arting.

I don't know, arting sounds too high falutin for what I do in ceramics class.  I'm a novice.  This term, I gave myself permission to simply experiment.  To see what I can do in clay.  But more than that, I'm experimenting with glazes.  They are such a mystery.  What they do on one project won't necessarily hold true for the next.  (Those pieces up above are for a "quilt" I'm making. It was a great way to play with a lot of glaze.)

I picked the theme Folk Art for the term.  No, we didn't have to pick a theme, but it really worked well for the things I'm arting...nope, that still doesn't seem to fit.  Crafting.  Yeah, I like that.  And it fits for both arting and wording.  I'm crafting art or stories.  

Crafting.  I think I might stick with that.

I have a friend on Facebook who calls  Renaissance Woman because I do a lot of weird things.  I'll confess, I do try a lot of stuff.  From splitting wood, to making beer and bread, to ceramics, to writing...

I've made baskets, quilts, afghans, and embroidered projects...

But here's the thing, I like trying new things.  I like figuring out how things work.  I like...crafting.

And I like knowing little bits about lots of stuff.  I really does help with my books.  Speaking of which, I'm working on a new idea that combines both wording-crafting and arting-crafting.  I'll share more on that later.  

Holly

PS. My love of crafting shows through in so many of my books.  Here's a few:
Spoons (I carved the spoons on the cover)
Just One Thing
Carry Her Heart
Once Upon a Valentine's