about alyssa
Like a lot of us, the COVID-19 pandemic set me into an anxiety spiral unlike anything I had ever experienced before. After a year of being mostly isolated to protect others, my husband and I relocated to Missoula, MT. While we LOVE living in the last best place (and it truly is), working remotely while still navigating “post” pandemic times was really challenging. Specifically for finding my footing and a community after having been rooted in Nashville for more than a decade.
Discovering Pottery
Most of my life, I’ve had a creative outlet. Scrapbooking, sewing, painting, baking, etc. I’ve always found a way to express myself through making. My battle with anxiety and transitioning to a new place while working a new job took all of my focus and my creative outlets disappeared.
Someone I follow on instagram shared how starting pottery helped her work through crippling anxiety and became a great creative outlet for her. This inspired me to find pottery classes in Missoula that my parents gifted me for Christmas. One class led to another. Almost 2 years later and here we are!
I’m still learning and I certainly do not know everything. I throw several hours a week and even still, I sit down at the wheel and can have a series of flops. Pottery humbles me.
lessons from pottery
I like to explain to people that pottery has taught me significant lessons in attachment, letting go, and trusting the process. As a very “type A” person and Enneagram 8, I like control. It’s really hard to let things go and just enjoy. Pottery became such an important outlet for me to just be. Just practice. Just learn. Accept mistakes.
If you are a potter you know that there are so many steps for things to go wrong no matter how much planning you do – throwing, trimming, drying, bisque fire, glazing, glaze fire. Just recently, I was extremely proud of the 20 mugs I threw that were almost identical shapes and sizes (this is hard). All was well until it wasn’t – in the last step of the process. The cone 5 glaze bloated in an accidentally too hot cone 6 glaze fire. This ruined every single item made with that clay… 20 mugs, bowls, vases, etc. Yes, it is a huge bummer and feels like a waste of precious resources. But, it happens. You learn. You continue to create.
Selling my work
In my previous creative endeavors, I have often made them a business and then experienced intense burn out. For the past almost 2 years, I’ve been very committed to pottery as a hobby only. I have a day job that I love and I desperately want to continue creating with clay (read: avoid burnout). BUT, creating comes at a cost and I live in a tiny house (literally under 600 square feet), so no matter how hard I try to make things I will use, I never have enough space.
I’ve sold my work here and there to friends and family via instagram stories. I’ve sent boxes of ceramics to work with my husband as a “pay what you want” model. And now, I have been asked enough and have found my pottery “voice” enough to launch this a little further into the world.
Thank you for supporting my pottery hobby and creative outlet! Currently, all of the money I make goes into supplies, studio rent, and firing. All of my “seconds” go into my Little Free Library or to a local thrift store for others to enjoy.