Finding Your People and Raku Pottery Glazing

The joy of hanging out with artists and creating

Humans are wired for connection, but it can be hard to find “your people.” You often hear it is difficult to make friends when you are older. I call nonsense. If you don’t leave your house and don’t do things you enjoy where you might meet other people who enjoy those things, yes, it will be hard to make friends. 

If you have many different interests, like I do, it can be challenging to find people who want to talk about the things you’re interested in, or to go do the things you want to do. 

As an example, I go see a lot of live music. I love world music and Latin jazz. There are so many people at the shows, but I generally go alone because I haven’t found anyone who wants to see that type of music. 

Clearly, other people are interested, but I don’t know them.

Over the past 10 years I have started drawing and painting. I like thinking about colors and textures and techniques. I have been a member of one arts guild for several years, but never developed friendships with those artists as they mostly live in the suburbs. 

Last year I found an arts center that is walkable for me. Joining the Greenleaf Art Center was my gift to myself last holiday season. The open studio shows are fantastic and I wanted to be part of them. I also really liked several of the artists I spoke with at the shows and hoped I would make some friends. I wanted to experience a sense of community. 

The first show I did with the Greenleaf Art Center was a lot of fun. I did the scary thing and had my own table for the first time.

The woman at the table next to me, Kathleen Cool, was a potter and a total hoot. We chatted much of the night. I even bought one of her bowls, which I adore, and it looks absolutely fantastic in my dining room. 

Kathleen offered to host an event for the Greenleaf artists. We were invited to come to her house and do Raku pottery glazing. According to this article:

 The Raku technique is essentially when glazed ceramics are taken from the kiln while they are still glowing red hot and are then placed in a material that would be able to catch fire, such as sawdust or newspaper. This technique is used to starve the piece of oxygen, which creates a myriad of colors within the glaze.

I have always wanted to try anything related to pottery, so I signed up immediately. 

The other artists there were delightful people. A few of them mentioned that it was so nice to hang out with artists. It was indeed. We talked about our art, the last show, the upcoming show, other techniques or subject matter we were exploring, all while enjoying a potluck dinner and firing pottery pieces. 

I didn’t understand what I was signing up for, so I will include a bunch of pictures. The Raku technique is wild.

Many of us connected on Facebook and shared pictures, tagging each other. I definitely feel like I made some friends and found a few of “my people.”