Emma Smith Ceramics

Loaded up Bob with a skeleton crew, and she’s ready to fire. I could never load and fire this kiln by myself, and I wouldn’t want to - camaraderie is everything.

Inspiration for a glazey day. The opposite of a lazy day. #triangles #carnegie2021 #peachtreeperks

Loading Bob on Friday, so today was a kilnsite day. I can’t wait to fire her again. I came home with a body tired from hauling wood, and found some sweet shadows and sun rays on the last of the drying pots. #bigassbowlsforhostingthefriendsyouarentallowedtoeatwith #maybetheycanbeusedoneday #dateswithbob #woodfiredpotterykilns #woodfiredceramics

I found a deer spine at the kilnsite this winter, but left it where it lay. #thingsimake #thingsmychickensmake #whatmakesalife #carnegie2021 #thoughtsandpots

Since this time last year I’ve had to make some changes to stay afloat - as most precariously employed folks have. This meant shifting from full time in my studio and shop, to part time. While Bob was under construction it looked an awful lot like part time building a kiln, and no time in the studio at all. One mantra I remind myself over and over is that: Artists are resourceful, and resilient, and luckily, have the ability to be flexible when changes are needed. I know this... to be true. I’m working towards a firing in April and I have a lot less time each week to make, than I might have had a year ago. To be honest, I really took full time in the studio for granted - what a luxury it was to be able to pop in there everyday, add more coils onto vases in progress, flip things that needed to dry, and be attentive to the endless babysitting. But with less time, my studio days look more like appreciation, and intention. I get to my work bench when the sun is coming up or when it’s setting. I am more diligent with goals and lists. A couple days a week I head down after breakfast and stay until long after dinner, listening to classical music late into the night or watching a comedy I’ve seen a dozen times before. The rest of the days are only stolen moments, but god do they feel so sweet when I get them. Only two weeks before we fire Bob, and still so much to do. The main difference from this shift is that I look ahead to three days and nights alone in my studio, and I’m excited in ways I was not before. Changes are good sometimes, and there will always be more changes on the horizon. I hope you’re enjoying something that feeds your soul today. See more

Words on wood. http://www.emmasmithceramics.com/words

Between days of prepping wood for this year’s firings, I am getting into the woods for hours each day. I could not live in a land without seasons, and indeed, it still doesn’t snow here quite enough for me. With a recent snowfall, I set aside time in the morning to go walking before the trails are flattened and the ice starts to form. Standing at the base of one of this area’s hundred+ waterfalls, watching mountains form from droplets of mist, which will linger here well into spring. A reminder that when the air is warm, the earth is still cold. Winter is a time for slowness. A time for stillness. I try to live in seasons, as the hardwood forest does.

A wee bowl. I bought a hunk of pork belly last week and have been making pork belly tacos most nights with homemade corn tortillas. We just switch up the other toppings - cabbage slaw, roasted beets and carrots, sweet potato fries, shiitake mushrooms we’ve been growing in our pantry, cashew chipotle cream, guacamole heavy on the lime, all with greens and cilantro from our greenhouse which gives us gifts everyday. In addition to my love of toppings (and foods that are wrapped in other foods), I love taco nights because I get to use a lot of handmade pots. #livingtoeat #artyoucanuse #woodfiredceramics #woodfiredpottery

I haven’t taught in almost a year so I moved the extra wheels out of the studio and in their place put a floor loom from a friend, in pieces, a puzzle to be built. Also a trundle of corn husks I collected in the fall, a basket destined to be woven some day. A few vases of branches, dried grasses and flowers, for what, I’m not sure, but I like to look at them and dream of spring. By the woodstove I cleared a wall to practice handstands, and emptied the floor in the centre to m...ove to string music - space to stretch my arms and legs. In a few weeks I’ll hang the grow lights above my ware rack and fill the shelves with seedlings, gently tend them and watch them grow. And in a small space about 7ft high I hung my rope. It’s too low to climb and it isn’t safe for inverting, but I plan to spend time wrapped in it, spiralling in and out. I used to worry about titles. What makes me a potter? Is it a life dedicated completely to clay? Or a dedication to pots? Can I be a potter, and also be a mover, a brick layer, a wood chopper, a seed sower, a contemplator, a wordsmith, a tangler, a dancer, a maker? Does the word artist encompass all these things? Or perhaps I’m just an animal - interested in life and how it works and why we live it. I’ve always hated asking people what they do - as if the title of their job defined who they were. Instead I’d like to ask, what fills you? So. What fills you? See more

My brain is shouting in incoherent, unrelated, loud and quiet, unrelenting ways. I’d like to write to educate and inform, to ask questions and provoke curiosity. To challenge. To listen. To query. To share. But there is so much going on, and there are so many people with so many different views, and isn’t that part of what makes the world interesting? And also what makes it hard? My brain is simply shouting Stay home! Think of others! You don’t need that right now!Here in O...ntario we’ve been ordered to stay in our homes. There is confusion around the logistics, the wording, the leadership. There are discrepancies in policies. There is misunderstanding and lack of trust. I don’t agree with our leadership’s approach but when have I ever let a government define for me what being a compassionate and caring human looks like? Frankly, that’s not their job, and they generally aren’t too good at it. I don’t need to agree with the leadership in order to make my own decisions that reflect compassion for others. I too, wish our government was doing more. But they aren’t, and in some ways I’m not sure that they can. So in the interim, what can I as an individual do? I don’t know much, but I know this: ** other lives are just as important as my life. ** There are people more affected by this than me. Other people who have no choice but to not stay home. Others with no home to stay put in. I have the privilege of being able to stay home. I have the privilege of not needing much. I’m staying put so the folks who don’t have that privilege, can be safe. Think for yourself - what can you do? What feels right? Can you do with less? What, for you, is ESSENTIAL, and what, for you, is a luxury? I challenge us all to think more critically, and stop waiting for someone else to make the right decision. We can make it ourselves. #staythefuckhome #wearamask #artispolitical See more