My Blog
My thoughts, rants and some technical stuff
New Year’s Resolutions
It is January and at the beginning of the year we try to make our planning, but also our new year’s resolutions. Seasonal planning for potters: Last year’s been crazy: starting in September...
How do you define or identify yourself?
Have you ever thought about how there are different ways how to present yourself? When we present ourselves to someone new it is interesting what we say about ourselves first and have you thought at...
Summer Program
Dear Friends, It is nearly May and summer’s already on my mind!!! I am excited to release my ambitious summer plans to you before I put it out there in the public. First of all, we’re building an...
THE ELECTRIC KILN, AKA THE POTTERS’ MAGIC BOX
Often potters would refer to their kiln as a magic box, where pieces go in and are taken out mysteriously transformed after the firing. Sometimes they are even talking to making offerings to the so...
Bringing luxury into your home
Recently I have been featured amongst others in an article by Ryan Castillo, on Redfin, US based company in real estate and providing interior design tips for home buyers. My humble contribution in...
“Slow” January
The whole build up to Christmas has been intense, busy, sometimes even stressful. Starting in September I worked hard to build up stock, deliveries in November, kiln failures throughout November and...
Between New and Old
Living in Ireland, we're amongst the last to welcome the new year in Europe and since we have most of our family ahead on us in time, we generally start wishing well for the new year well ahead of...
Circadian Rhythm
Luckily temperatures have now returned to being mild, but oh boy, a couple of weeks ago it has been extremely cold for December here in Ireland! I happened to spend that time in open air Christmas...
Building stress
They say building or restructuring a house is one of the most stressful activities a person can go through... Most of my regular followers know that this summer we moved into our newly renovated...
From the other side of the counter
I haven’t written a blogpost in a while as I was extremely busy stocking up for Christmas, getting stocks organized in the shops and getting ready for the Christmas markets I am participating in...
The toxicity of regret
I just finished reading “the midnight library” by Matt Haig. It was hard to get through the first few chapters as the story revolves around the life of Nora Seed who lives in a downward spiral...
In which direction is your wheel spinning?
One of the first things I address when I start to teach the wheel to my students, is the direction of the wheel. I generally ask whether the students are right or left handed and I explain...
Recycling and “short” clay
One of the daily or, in any case frequent, tasks of a ceramic artist is the recycling of clay. With the exception of a few of us, the majority of ceramicists buy their clay from a...
Art vs art therapy
In my previous blog I wrote about art and its role as an alternative to verbal communication. Currently I am working on a program for a course to use clay in as a therapeutic instrument in the...
BEYOND WORDS
We generally express ourselves through words, but beyond words there is a myriad of other possibilities. Think about different ways of communication, like the information that you can gather from...
Welcome to my pottery studio!
OMG, my days have been incredibly busy the last couple of months! After the first moving date into our new home on May 30th was pushed forward as the house was far from being ready, we succeeded to...
Project pottery studio n. 3
A further update in my pottery studio design: the pottery is intended to house and facilitate my own production as well as courses. This post therefore addresses the equipment and furniture in the...
The Pottery Design Project n# 2: water
After establishing the main ideas on how to plan my new pottery studio, I will now focus on some practical points. This first practical part concerns water and cleaning. Running water in the studio...
The pottery design project number 1
I didn’t get to writing blogs for some time as we are preparing for the final works and subsequent move to our new home. We’re so excited to get to move into the house we bought last summer. It has...
Shackled by the chains of time
Call me weird, but my best way to relax consists in the luxury of ignoring time or any time indicating device. Having time limits to activities or knowing that at a certain hour I need to go out to...
Happy Dog, Happy Me
I have written a lot about the positive influence of creativity and clay on my mental heath, but I never addressed the crucial role our sweet and lovely Camilla, our beagle, has had in my recovery...
Super Mom
I am no super mom I used to keep brave No matter what I wanted to keep the kids safe Free from tears Negativity, regret Free from harm Showing only the best I could get But in the end I had to pay...
Assertiveness
Are you assertive? What is assertiveness exactly? Oxford dictionary defines it as “confident and forceful behaviour”. When you look at the importance of being assertive, you’ll find that indicates...
Hope
This blog is inspired by an essay my son had to write for school. He had to write a commentary on a poem in which hope was compared to a bird and its feathers. It originated some deeper thoughts...
Expectations
What do you expect when you read that word? What do you feel? Are you thinking about Charles Dickens’ novel “Great Expectations” or are you thinking about what you expect to be (doing) in a couple...
1 plus 1 is not 2!
For those who have followed me in my endeavour to set up a business, you have witnessed the challenges and small victories on my way. I am now 10 months in since the start of the business and I am...
Tell me a story
Who doesn’t like listening to stories and tales? Tales have been told around the fire since prehistoric times. First tales were just told and transmitted orally and later they were codified in...
Perfectionism
Have you ever been asked the question to talk about your qualities and points of improvement during a job interview? It puts you quite on the spot, especially when you are forced to talk about your...
Jizo
When I was in Japan back in 2017, I saw statues I felt very much attracted to. The statues are representations of Jizo, the Buddhist divinity loved by most Japanese people. Since I first saw...
New Year Resolutions
My one resolution is letting go of expectations. Think about it: mostly anger, frustration, depression or grief is originated from an unfulfilled expectation. You expected your husband to do the...
Christmas Reflections
Today is the day before Christmas; time for some considerations . The last two years Christmas has been different. Due to the pandemic and our move to an island, reuniting with our family has become...
The magic of books
In my mind a library has become one of the most romantic places on earth. A place stuffed with books and magazines. A cosy and simple place where I feel at ease, even though I am also attracted to...
Go wild with clay!
Did you know clay is not just clay? Yes, it is this fabulous plastic material that transforms from a formless heap into a beautiful form and then into a stone hard object, but there are many types...
Glaze
A glaze is a glass layer on your pot or ceramic piece. It makes our pot more durable, resilient to dirt and bacteria and more beautifulI. Glaze is generally made of naturally occurring minerals from...
Tears and thoughts
Last weekend I lost somebody very dear to my heart. She has been ill for a long time and probably she’s better off now, but nevertheless her departure has left a deep sorrow with me and I have shed...
Ergonomics at the potters wheel
A lot of potters spend quite some time at their potters wheel. When teaching pottery I am often confronted with questions in relation to posture. If the potters wheel is placed too high or too low...
Generation Z
I am a boomer and my kids remind me and my husband repeatedly. I think this categorisation and the word is hilarious! Having three kids I am able to observe on a daily basis today’s generation and I...
Spoiler Alert: RANT!
Running a small business in the creative sector is great, it’s lovely, it’s a dream... However, all the hustling around and behind the scenes is not! When I was working in an organised complex and...
Stress and Self-care
Ok, so school is back on or will be back on soon. Holidays are over and the regular routine and related stress is on its way back to our minds… So, if there was a way to prevent it or to mitigate...
Thinking about meditation and mindfulness
“Breathe in, breathe out, focus your attention and relax”. These are the words that jump to my mind when I am thinking about meditation. There are different kinds of meditation: you can concentrate...
A smelly business
We interact with what surrounds us through our senses. We have five traditional senses known as taste, smell, touch, hearing, and sight. The stimuli from each sensing organ in the body are relayed...
We are not our thoughts
We tend to believe that what we think is true. I have given this concept a lot of thought lately while putting this in perspective on my journey to self acceptance. I generally do not think highly...
Clay Lessons
Everyone who has tried getting into pottery knows that making pottery is far more challenging than you would expect at first. When you handle clay, you immediately notice that there is more to it...
Are we trying too hard?
In my book “Mental Healing Through Clay” I already mentioned how our Western society is focussed on just the importance of the happy side of our stories, obsessed with pushing away the negative and...
The mind space I was not aware of…
I would start this blog with a quote by Viktor E. Frankl which I thought was mind blowing when I first heard it: “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose...
The dose makes the poison
I just finished reading and article about the increasing number of people suffering from burn-out and depression in Belgium. Yes, I am still reading Belgian news as well as Irish and Italian....
The power of connecting
Some days, when you least expect it, something powerful happens… it happened to me this morning. While I was wrestling with website and informatics issues and getting frustrated about it, I received...
Less is more
Picking up after my previous blog, I would like to talk more about the concept of less is more. Our lives have become increasingly intricate and complex. Our lives are full of a lot of things:...
Slow Motion
It has been a while most of us are at home. At the moment the pandemic hit, more than a year ago now, from one day to another things stopped dead in their tracks. Suddenly schools were closed,...
A business requires a Business Plan…
A plan, a plan, my realm for a plan… But how do you go about making a plan, or more specifically, how do you start making a business plan, when you have no experience at all? Yes, there are...
Mud Mum goes business
Working with clay makes me feel good. It gives me great satisfaction to make something beautiful from a formless and sticky heap of clay. What a sense of joy when you have created something...
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Address
35 Offington Dr, Howth Demesne, Dublin, D13 E2H9, Ireland
Call Me
+353 85 252 7582
Email Me
elisa@elisaceramicsart.com