Monday, September 16
Sep. 16th, 2024 11:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
Beautiful sunny weather today. The rain from two days ago is all soaked up.
I saw Northern Lights in the wee hours last night/today, and they were so beautiful. I saw them a few days ago too but didn't write about it here.
I went to pottery in not a great frame of mind to begin with because of how the classes are now all being taken over by beginners, and how I won't be able to work at the studio in the evening any more. So, one woman that I don't know very well jumped in to comment on "how I should just come in earlier". Yeah, I didn't reply very nicely to her about that.
I've been able to come in and work in the evening for pottery for the entire time until now, so over ten years I've been able to come in the evening and work as long as I wanted to, and now this person S who is the emperor of pottery just made Monday class for afternoons, and we have to be done by 5:30. I used to ARRIVE at 5:30 and work in the evening so I could have the place mostly to myself. Now there is an evening class of beginners who will more or less work in that time period, and no one was consulted or otherwise had input.
I had THOUGHT that I could work through into the beginner's class, but no. I cannot.
For now, I suppose I could still come in on the weekend, I guess until this woman has a beginner's class that day too.
So I came into pottery today, and went to work, and tried to enjoy myself, but I am finding it oppressive to keep finding more and more of the things that used to make this place worthwhile just being shut down by this woman S.
Two women from her "beginner's" class came in early (and if I had wanted to be a total b*tch I could have told them they were not allowed to be early, and you know, technically they're not supposed to be in our class time) and I did my best to be nice and civil with them. They are not my problem. S is my problem.
They ended up asking for help with a few things that are BASIC, and the woman asking has been a "beginner" for two whole years now. Things that I recall being taught within the first few weeks of my pottery class years ago. BASIC THINGS. So what the hell are they even learning?
I showed her a few things, and they were blown away, like they couldn't believe that I was teaching them something useful. It makes me sad on so many levels.
I did get some things done, so that was good, amid all the chaos and internal rage.
By then, the other beginners were showing up. There are EIGHTEEN beginners in this class, and the two that showed up early were upset to find out how many people were in this class, because the whole reason why they agreed to move to Monday evening from Thursday was that they thought they were going to be in a smaller group. Nope.
So, now there are three "beginner's" classes, many of whom have been in a "beginner's" class for a year or two. It used to be that a person was a beginner for ONE YEAR, then they were moved to work on one of the "unsupervised studio use" times, like where I am.
Anyhow, this is when I found out that I couldn't stay to work, but was expected to leave. S more or less told my "I couldn't be here". As I was trying to clean up, people kept asking me for help, and I kept trying to help them, and S was obviously angry that I was trying to help them.
You know what? All of our other classes THRIVE on us helping EACH OTHER, not looking to some "instructor" as if they were god. That's how we learn, is from each other.
The one woman was literally asking me about how to glaze the BOTTOM of her tray. If you know anything about pottery, you know you can't glaze the bottom of things like trays, or the glaze will adhere to the shelf in the kiln. Apparently this woman S was telling her that they could "prop it up on pottery stilts, which maybeeeee could work, but it is more likely that this will cause the tray to crack because of the weight being on a few pressure points, and if the tray falls, the whole thing will stick to the shelf and likely ruin someone else's pieces with it.
There's other logistical issues too, like how do you dry such a piece after dipping it in glaze, if it can't be set down? And so on.
I wasn't telling this woman "no", but asking her if they had solutions for these potential issues, when S came over and more or less told me to go home and stop talking to people.
Our pottery class had NEVER been about all of the answers coming from an "instructor". She's also literally suggesting that they try things that are VERY LIKELY to fail badly.
So, I left. In a very bad mood, feeling like the whole place was becoming a madhouse being run by a dictator, and none of the "executive" of the craft center seem to care.
I did go to Winner's for some retail therapy, since that seems to be the only place where I get to effect a decision or action, and found a nice wool sweater hoodie.
Then I got groceries, and I am very grateful to be able to get groceries and be physically capable etc.
In both stores I made a concerted effort to be very warm and kind and engaging with the check out clerks, not to let S poison every part of my soul, and was rewarded by them both being happy to engage in small talk with me, and likely happy that I made their work day a bit less tedious.
The one woman at Winner's I see often, and she's very funny. She was talking about seeing things in the back for Christmas already, and so on.
I came home and my Sweetie had let the animals out for me and also brought them back in, as he was home a little earlier than usual.
He has been working in the office in the city the last year, and for now it looks like they want him to work in a different capacity, helping to organize things at a pipe yard where they build units for various projects. He is somewhat happy to do something different, as he's been working in the office doing the same things for this past year. This pipe yard is a little closer to home, though he is going to still (sigh) drive into the city sometimes to go to the same climbing gym. Yet, they want him to start there earlier in the day, meaning he will have to get up even earlier than he already does to go to work, also meaning he will have to go to bed earlier.
He already tries to be in bed before 10 pm, and already gets up at 5:30 am. He will need to be up at about 5 am, and probably in bed by 9 now, meaning I really won't see much of him, because it seems like he probably won't get home any earlier.
Beautiful sunny weather today. The rain from two days ago is all soaked up.
I saw Northern Lights in the wee hours last night/today, and they were so beautiful. I saw them a few days ago too but didn't write about it here.
I went to pottery in not a great frame of mind to begin with because of how the classes are now all being taken over by beginners, and how I won't be able to work at the studio in the evening any more. So, one woman that I don't know very well jumped in to comment on "how I should just come in earlier". Yeah, I didn't reply very nicely to her about that.
I've been able to come in and work in the evening for pottery for the entire time until now, so over ten years I've been able to come in the evening and work as long as I wanted to, and now this person S who is the emperor of pottery just made Monday class for afternoons, and we have to be done by 5:30. I used to ARRIVE at 5:30 and work in the evening so I could have the place mostly to myself. Now there is an evening class of beginners who will more or less work in that time period, and no one was consulted or otherwise had input.
I had THOUGHT that I could work through into the beginner's class, but no. I cannot.
For now, I suppose I could still come in on the weekend, I guess until this woman has a beginner's class that day too.
So I came into pottery today, and went to work, and tried to enjoy myself, but I am finding it oppressive to keep finding more and more of the things that used to make this place worthwhile just being shut down by this woman S.
Two women from her "beginner's" class came in early (and if I had wanted to be a total b*tch I could have told them they were not allowed to be early, and you know, technically they're not supposed to be in our class time) and I did my best to be nice and civil with them. They are not my problem. S is my problem.
They ended up asking for help with a few things that are BASIC, and the woman asking has been a "beginner" for two whole years now. Things that I recall being taught within the first few weeks of my pottery class years ago. BASIC THINGS. So what the hell are they even learning?
I showed her a few things, and they were blown away, like they couldn't believe that I was teaching them something useful. It makes me sad on so many levels.
I did get some things done, so that was good, amid all the chaos and internal rage.
By then, the other beginners were showing up. There are EIGHTEEN beginners in this class, and the two that showed up early were upset to find out how many people were in this class, because the whole reason why they agreed to move to Monday evening from Thursday was that they thought they were going to be in a smaller group. Nope.
So, now there are three "beginner's" classes, many of whom have been in a "beginner's" class for a year or two. It used to be that a person was a beginner for ONE YEAR, then they were moved to work on one of the "unsupervised studio use" times, like where I am.
Anyhow, this is when I found out that I couldn't stay to work, but was expected to leave. S more or less told my "I couldn't be here". As I was trying to clean up, people kept asking me for help, and I kept trying to help them, and S was obviously angry that I was trying to help them.
You know what? All of our other classes THRIVE on us helping EACH OTHER, not looking to some "instructor" as if they were god. That's how we learn, is from each other.
The one woman was literally asking me about how to glaze the BOTTOM of her tray. If you know anything about pottery, you know you can't glaze the bottom of things like trays, or the glaze will adhere to the shelf in the kiln. Apparently this woman S was telling her that they could "prop it up on pottery stilts, which maybeeeee could work, but it is more likely that this will cause the tray to crack because of the weight being on a few pressure points, and if the tray falls, the whole thing will stick to the shelf and likely ruin someone else's pieces with it.
There's other logistical issues too, like how do you dry such a piece after dipping it in glaze, if it can't be set down? And so on.
I wasn't telling this woman "no", but asking her if they had solutions for these potential issues, when S came over and more or less told me to go home and stop talking to people.
Our pottery class had NEVER been about all of the answers coming from an "instructor". She's also literally suggesting that they try things that are VERY LIKELY to fail badly.
So, I left. In a very bad mood, feeling like the whole place was becoming a madhouse being run by a dictator, and none of the "executive" of the craft center seem to care.
I did go to Winner's for some retail therapy, since that seems to be the only place where I get to effect a decision or action, and found a nice wool sweater hoodie.
Then I got groceries, and I am very grateful to be able to get groceries and be physically capable etc.
In both stores I made a concerted effort to be very warm and kind and engaging with the check out clerks, not to let S poison every part of my soul, and was rewarded by them both being happy to engage in small talk with me, and likely happy that I made their work day a bit less tedious.
The one woman at Winner's I see often, and she's very funny. She was talking about seeing things in the back for Christmas already, and so on.
I came home and my Sweetie had let the animals out for me and also brought them back in, as he was home a little earlier than usual.
He has been working in the office in the city the last year, and for now it looks like they want him to work in a different capacity, helping to organize things at a pipe yard where they build units for various projects. He is somewhat happy to do something different, as he's been working in the office doing the same things for this past year. This pipe yard is a little closer to home, though he is going to still (sigh) drive into the city sometimes to go to the same climbing gym. Yet, they want him to start there earlier in the day, meaning he will have to get up even earlier than he already does to go to work, also meaning he will have to go to bed earlier.
He already tries to be in bed before 10 pm, and already gets up at 5:30 am. He will need to be up at about 5 am, and probably in bed by 9 now, meaning I really won't see much of him, because it seems like he probably won't get home any earlier.
no subject
Date: 2024-09-19 05:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-09-19 06:38 am (UTC)I've said out loud many times at our craft center meetings that we need to start training other people to do more of the things she does. To train other people to make the glazes, to involve other people in the various ways of maintaining the studio, to no avail.
So, yes this woman is in her glory as the queen of everything, BUT, if anything happens to her, our whole studio is shit out of luck too.
She comes across as sweet and solicitous, someone who "lives to serve", but will also LOSE HER MIND if she thinks anyone is threatening her iron death grip on everything. She is a control freak. She doesn't yell or scream though, she gets "VERY SAD" and "DISAPPOINTED" and looks like she's going to cry and fall over dead. She's very manipulative.
So yes, the whole situation sucks. Our small studio with the capacity to run the kilns maybe twice a week can't really handle the addition of 50 new members. That literally doubles the number of people using the same space, meaning there is very little space to store your tools and the pieces that you have drying.
What I also hate, is that the things I used to love about this studio, like times to come and work on your own with lots of time for creativity are disappearing.
The days where her "beginners" come in, they are packed in like sardines and they can barely walk around each other to get to their shelves, or to glaze their pieces. It's claustrophobia inducing. They also are still doing laughably amateur work after being in the studio for two years, so they aren't learning much from this woman.
The studio used to have some very good potters doing really interesting work, but one by one they are leaving. Some to just work at home and others just go away because I think they don't like how things are being run.
no subject
Date: 2024-09-21 04:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-09-21 06:02 am (UTC)I am pushing for my husband to make some space in our garage for the pottery wheel we own already, so that we COULD throw and trim at home, and take those pieces in to be fired. It would mean we would have big blocks of time to throw at home, because it's the throwing and trimming that really takes time.
As for the beginners, I feel badly that they are paying to be part of the studio, and they are jammed in so tight they barely have any space to work. I saw it first hand once last year, and people were working elbow to elbow. Pottery requires SPACE!
Also, it seems they aren't learning to problem solve, since they keep asking me very basic questions that anyone doing pottery for two years should have been able to figure out.