The foundation had been poured and finished and it was time to back-fill the trenches before starting the floor joists on our home improvement project.
I decided that those open trenches were a good opportunity to get rid of some junk pottery that has been collecting in my kiln studio for years and years.
Every potter has a certain percentage of work that comes out of the kiln with cracks, warps, glaze drips and other undesirable effects. Old, ugly pots qualify as junk too. There are
seconds (pieces with slight flaws) that can still be useful but then there is
garbage. There was a time in the beginning of my career as a potter when I had a hard time parting with anything that I had put my blood, sweat and back muscle into. My family collected my cast-off junk and I used the rejects in my own home. Some of my ugliest, most poorly made work still exists and occasionally comes back to haunt me.
As I've gotten more mature in my thinking as a potter I have become more jaded and hard-nosed about getting rid of the junk and keeping only pots that I am happy to leave behind as my artistic legacy. But a box full of stoneware garbage is a heavy box. I couldn't just dump it at the curb so junks pots have been collecting in the corner of my studio for years and years.
Filling the trenches gave me an opportunity to clear out my studio and follow the lead of centuries of potteries in cultures all over the world that have shards and pieces buried under the ground.
It makes me smile to think that someday in the far future this property could be excavated and all these bits could be unearthed. Or, they may just stay there forever, leaving a reminder that once a potter lived here and she made things with clay, things that don't decay or decompose but that can last for centuries underground. The good work, the work I'm proud of, stays above ground in the hands of family, friends and collectors, to be seen, used and enjoyed.
The rest- good riddance!
