As the year comes to an end – and things are slowing down, we finally got the opportunity to update this website. After adding new photos, it struck us that it has been over a year since we posted a blog note. While the busyness has kept us from sharing our musings – it has been an incredible year in the pottery space. As we finally have the time to reflect – it sinks in that there is so much to be grateful for.Since photos are more effective that words – you can see in the gallery how the scope of the pottery continues to grow. The opportunities for teaching are also expanding. Besides teaching at the home school in Bethel – and expanded classes at the Danbury YMCA we had the opportunity to take part at the Housatonic Valley Waldorf School Craft fair where 15 kids got to make a snowman. See photo below. I also had a steady stream of students at the home studio – which is now well set up with awesome LED lights – and a new L&L Electronic kiln.
Part of the busyness came about because I had the privelge to receive an assignment to make 100 mugs as a corporate gift - which was a pleasure and an adventure.Another aspect of pottery I am grateful for is that one of our olive oil dispensers got featured in the December issue of the Connecticut Magazine.While being busy has its pitfalls, a time of rest and reflection - is refreshing. Reflection led me to gratitude – and I was reminded of an article I read recently – citing a University of Berkley study – showing how gratitude alters the brain chemistry – leading to happiness.  Until we are grateful for the things and people we have in our lives, we will never be satisfied with the things we try endlessly to acquire.Being thankful means we remember we have been given good things. It does not mean that life is perfect as we all still have our burdens and struggles. We recognize that it is not just a result of our efforts. The question is to whom we should be thankful and this leads me personally to Thank God.
As we look at our year in review - as Facebook prompts - let our hearts be filled with gratitude for all God has done for us - including sending his Son, Jesus. 
Ecclesiastes 3:1 -There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens 

For those of us who live in America and have children this the season known as "Back to School". Just like other significant calendar events in our country this date is heralded by retailer sales. This season is so critical that 18 states exempt sales tax around this time as it is the second most important time of the year for the likes of Walmart. 

Of course it is not about the school supplies but the excitement of a fresh start for the children. They learn about their teachers and settle back into their routine, hopefully looking forward to learn new things. 

For years, in our home “Back to School” was very typical – a return to a more stable home routine after an action packed summer of fun. This year things are a little different. Firstly, we dropped off Akash as an incoming freshman at Gordon College – truly a fresh start. Maybe what’s new for Ravi is not having his brother’s company. However, what is most different this year in our family is that it my turn to experience “Back to School”.

At the beginning of this year, I was blessed to be given the opportunity to teach pottery to middle and high school children at a home school coop. I also got to give a few lessons to “special needs “children through Newtown Youth and Family services, along with a “summer camp” at the YMCA in Danbury and a painting ceramics at  Artfish, in Milford . All this has shown me the joy I get in sharing the ‘gift’ of Pottery that God has given me – and for that I am immensely grateful. Classes at the CHANGE coop start this Friday and I am looking forward to getting to meet my students and get to know them better, even as we have fun,  playing with clay.

As you contemplate a “fresh start” this season what are you looking forward to? May I suggest we all put “Knowing God better” in our routine? All that we do has no meaning or purpose without His presence. As we are reminded in Philippians 3:8 “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord”

Firstly, if you are a mother – congratulations. Cards, flowers or a fine meal are not able to fully express our gratitude for the selfless love you display, caring for your children every day.

For all of us, this is an opportunity to thank our heavenly Father for our precious mothers who nurture us to be who we are. As Psalms 139 13-14 expresses “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

Pottery helps mothers understand their children. What others might see as flaws are unique attributes. While some of our work can be similar no two “pieces” are identical. We cherish our children for who they are. Most of all, we remember that we take the clay we are given and with our love, shape them into the most beautiful objects possible.

Pottery can also help children honor their mothers as they are commanded to do in Exodus 20:12 “Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” Roberta helped the children at the home-school coop (and also our church preschool) where she teaches pottery make these photo frames as Mother’s Day presents. Today, remember your mother !

Near the end of August, the cold of the last winter is a distant memory. The busyness of the season has left us stressed and without time to think. Everything seems to have crowded out this blog. However, as we look ahead to the school year, we are organizing ourselves back into a routine.

When I reflect on the impact that the seasons have on our moods and activity levels, I can’t help but think how temperatures play a transformational role in pottery too. 

As a kiln is firing up and cooling down, the changes in temperature make some profound changes in the clay. The clay goes from this soft, totally fragile substance to one which is rock-hard, impervious to water, wind, and time.

Of course, one’s change in humor is cyclical, while the clay is permanently altered but sunshine and heat is the common element. There are many aspects to temperatures in pottery. These range from type of kilns to end results on glazes. Perhaps in a future blog post we will explore this more. Today, I want to just dwell on the amazing transformation of the clay as it is under fire.

Since God is the Master Potter and we are “His” pieces of clay, I am reminded of how he is shaping us in the seasons of our lives. We are so often weighed down by our own selfish desires, petty ambitions, or attractions which are temporal instead of eternal.  God uses adversity, rejection and failure to free us from the crust, grime and dirt of this world and change us more into the likeness of Jesus.

 As I Peter 1:6-7 reminds us “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

If you are stressed for any reason, I hope you may you find strength and encouragement in Him and His word.

As I sit in the sun, in this cold winter day, meditating in my quiet time, I am admiring an Amaryllis that is in full bloom.

This magnificent plant is in a bowl that I was making with the intention of serving food. However, while glazing the bowl, I accidentally made a hole in it. I did not want to simply throw away something that gave me joy in making it. Now that bowl will have a different purpose. Sometimes, we have plans, but things change.

When a flower is blossoming like it is right now, no one notices the pot, holding mud and water. I want my life to be like that pot and display the beauty of Jesus Christ

Life has a purpose. It might not always be what you expect it will be, but God works in ways that we do not understand. My prayer is that my heart will hold His word and strengthen my soul. In the right time, I will show the beauty of Christ and refresh others. Whatever it will be, I just want to be a chunk of clay in the Potter’s hands.

2 Corinthians 3:18 reminds us “So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image”

It’s still early enough in 2014 to be wishing you a Happy New Year. Thank you for visiting our website and we hope you resolve to check back often to see what’s new.

New Year’s resolutions are believed to have begun several thousand years ago in Babylon. Even though Pottery originated in Egypt with bottles, jars and jugs, it was the Babylonians who made clay bricks and tiles with glossy layers of glaze, often decorated in several colors.

If you are one of the 45% of people who make New Year’s resolutions, now is a good time to stay firm. Only two thirds of resolutions are maintained past three weeks, which is the time it reportedly takes to create a habit. Yet, half of all resolutions made will be kept beyond six months.

The top resolutions are to lose weight, get organized and spend less, save more. Also popular are read the Bible and pray more often.

What all these resolutions have in common is that people are seeking to transform their lives into something better, more useful and beautiful.

When a potter picks up a lump of clay that is what happens too. Everyone can be shaped into an object of art, especially, if they submit their lives to the Master Potter, God.

2 Corinthians 2:15 says “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

There is nothing magical about a date on the calendar. Every day is a new beginning. Resolve to be with Jesus Christ. 

As much as I enjoy pottery my first love is God. In the Bible, which is my reference book of life, it says in 1 John 4:19 “We love because he first loved us.” In fact, Romans 5:8 tells us “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”.

I am grateful to God for the joy he gives me in my pottery. Interestingly, the Bible is fully of references to clay. We learn that we are made of clay in Genesis 2:7 “then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature”. Later on, this is reconfirmed in Job 10: 8-9 “Your hands fashioned and made me, and now you have destroyed me altogether. Remember that you have made me like clay; and will you return me to the dust?”

Not only are we made of clay, but God is the potter as Isaiah 64-8 reminds us. “But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.”

Pottery illustrates for me that we are “Clay in the Potter’s Hands”. I get great pleasure in shaping and decorating  what I make. Each piece is unique. You may not see some of the “flaws” but I know every nuance of all of my work.  As you enjoy the work on this website, may “My Potter" get all the praise and glory?   We hope to keep updating the website with new works and musings on pottery. Please check back periodically. Thank you.