Gosh, it’s been a while (a year!!) since I last wrote a blog. I’ve got to be honest it doesn’t come naturally to me to sit and pour my thoughts out on the internet. Anyway, I thought I’d share with you what I’ve been up to! Last September I started a job as an artist-in-residence and studio supervisor at a pottery studio. This is now my third year of working from my home studio and whilst I love painting, I don’t love the isolation. Balancing going to a place of work with working from home solved this and I’ve had a fab 11 months. Sadly, the pottery has now closed…sign of the times I think that no one wanted to buy it. Paying rent and running a kiln with the extortionate hikes in energy costs are certainly a risk right now. Small business owners with premises have my total respect and I hope they survive yet another economic storm.
I really enjoyed meeting people at the pottery and I was lucky that the owner Steph was lovely and down-to-earth. There were so many lovely aspects to my job like printing baby hands (tricky) and feet on bisque items. I also painted lots of samples to showcase different styles and techniques to customers. My favourite activity was painting pets on baubles and other items. It was a learning curve and I loved that I could see how I improved over time as I gained experience of the coloured glazes and how to apply them. I would recommend going to a paint-your-own-pot studio in your local area. It’s so much fun and people are always surprised by how relaxing it is. You don’t need to be artistic; anyone can apply colours and patterns with a brush and there are normally plenty of stamps and stencils to help you out.
For now, I am back to working from my home studio. But life is an adventure so watch this space as I plot and plan what’s next for me! And as always, if you would like a commission please get in touch. I would love to hear from you!
Linda Rodgers Art & Design 