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morgainaI had a great time at Baron’s Ball too and I was so glad so glad so glad Daedin, Onerie, Mrq_Laurellen, and Tam came over, what dedication! It was so appreciated. It was a fun weekend, I could spend a lot of time doing what we did.
The spot they put us in was nice, very close to all the activities but still space enough for us to spread out our stuff. Onerie almost drove us crazy with the fabulous food smells she was creating and with Torvald’s wonderful iron works, it looked cool as well as smelled good. I had brought enough frozen dough and dry bread ingredients for about 10 loaves of bread…which we didn’t get all baked. The frozen bread stayed in my cooler so when I opened the cooler after I got home Sunday, it had risen, pressing against its sack in a large, unified glob and looked like a 14 pound frozen turkey yearning for self-expression.
Kind of a funny/strange thing. I was weirded out by a couple of interesting little pirates who came to where I was demonstrating hand built pottery and began to take my clay and use my tools and make little….um things… out of it, without asking or even with a please ‘n thank you, . I was unhappy about it but didn’t say anything to them and have been thinking about it since then. This isn’t the first time when doing a demo people have asked if they could try it or could have some clay. If I bring my wheel I don’t get much time to do any demonstrating at all as people begin to line up to use the wheel etc. this was just the most extreme situation.
Thinking about it the reason why I give onlookers clay or don’t stop them when they take my clay because 1) it’s always made me feel a little guilty that I have the joy of being a potter and other people don’t. 2) I’m a teacher, I’m supposed to teach.
But further thought is that a demo is not a good teaching venue for pottery. There are very, very few things of use about clay that can be taught in 20 minutes. Often people really don’t want to be taught, they just want to entertain themselves or make something with free clay (I’ve often been told they want feast gear, a teapot, a vase but don’t want to pay for it). So in truth I am not being selfish if I just demonstrate. Indeed it is likely people can learn more from observing someone who has been doing it for awhile, then by fooling around with clay for a few minutes themselves. In the future if they ask during a demo I will offer to teach classes or Ithras or point them to ceramic places they can go where they can *really* do some learning. Appropriate activity during the appropriate venue.
So I’m glad that happened, it was such an odd situation it caused me to reflect, now I’ve got plans and plan not to be at a loss for words when this situation comes up again.
The spot they put us in was nice, very close to all the activities but still space enough for us to spread out our stuff. Onerie almost drove us crazy with the fabulous food smells she was creating and with Torvald’s wonderful iron works, it looked cool as well as smelled good. I had brought enough frozen dough and dry bread ingredients for about 10 loaves of bread…which we didn’t get all baked. The frozen bread stayed in my cooler so when I opened the cooler after I got home Sunday, it had risen, pressing against its sack in a large, unified glob and looked like a 14 pound frozen turkey yearning for self-expression.
Kind of a funny/strange thing. I was weirded out by a couple of interesting little pirates who came to where I was demonstrating hand built pottery and began to take my clay and use my tools and make little….um things… out of it, without asking or even with a please ‘n thank you, . I was unhappy about it but didn’t say anything to them and have been thinking about it since then. This isn’t the first time when doing a demo people have asked if they could try it or could have some clay. If I bring my wheel I don’t get much time to do any demonstrating at all as people begin to line up to use the wheel etc. this was just the most extreme situation.
Thinking about it the reason why I give onlookers clay or don’t stop them when they take my clay because 1) it’s always made me feel a little guilty that I have the joy of being a potter and other people don’t. 2) I’m a teacher, I’m supposed to teach.
But further thought is that a demo is not a good teaching venue for pottery. There are very, very few things of use about clay that can be taught in 20 minutes. Often people really don’t want to be taught, they just want to entertain themselves or make something with free clay (I’ve often been told they want feast gear, a teapot, a vase but don’t want to pay for it). So in truth I am not being selfish if I just demonstrate. Indeed it is likely people can learn more from observing someone who has been doing it for awhile, then by fooling around with clay for a few minutes themselves. In the future if they ask during a demo I will offer to teach classes or Ithras or point them to ceramic places they can go where they can *really* do some learning. Appropriate activity during the appropriate venue.
So I’m glad that happened, it was such an odd situation it caused me to reflect, now I’ve got plans and plan not to be at a loss for words when this situation comes up again.
