Notices by Pottery by Osa (potterybyosa@mastodon.social)

"Make a list of all the things that are pleasurable in your life and then make an art form out of one of them."

I'm leading a virtual workshop tomorrow encouraging people to take advantage of the grounding and therapeutic qualities of clay at low cost, from home.

In the making portion of the workshop, I will be sharing the perspective of dancer and ceramicists #PaulusBerensohn who elevated the simple #PinchPot to works of art.

https://youtu.be/92YYT9sYZi0

#art #inspiration #pottery #clay

Even as I create larger statement pieces for upcoming shows, my functional ware is still the most important aspect of my work because of the way it exists in people’s homes and everyday lives. Here are a few pieces that have come out of the kiln over the past few weeks. #pottery #ceramics

@aral @joynewacc Wonderful, thank you for this information. And good luck to you, Joy. 🙏🏾

@aral @joynewacc The fundraiser is going well and I'm happy to be part of the effort. It's one small beam of hope in this entire situation. I was wondering how Joy will be able to leave Gaza since movement is so restricted for Palestinians. Thanks.

We flew to #Louisiana to see family but made a stop to visit @archeaids and his wife Ann on the way from the airport. James gave us a quick pit firing demonstration, gifted me a sample of #clay from his yard and showed us different pots, clay samples and books from his collection. What a treat! #MastodonMeeting #ClayLovers #PitFiring #pottery

I got an email from someone in the UK who wondered if a piece of pottery was made by me. I doubted it because I don’t ship internationally, although anything is possible. There was a Danish brand of pottery called “OSA” that I’ve seen in online auctions. It’s funny bc their color pallet is also terracotta & teal.

These are the photos I received today. The Danish pottery mark is typically stamped but this mark looks hand carved. Maybe some of their earlier output or just coincidence. #pottery

I'm overwhelmed by the response to this piece. Thank you for all of the thoughtful, heartfelt comments.

I managed not to document any of the carving and slip decorating phase, but I did get some video of the coil building process. I made a short video that shows the technique, but it's more about my thoughts behind the process.

https://makertube.net/w/screFEXjuoGsUTKBWJ9wtE

#pottery #ceramics #clay #art #fractals #studio #handmade

This vase was a custom order for a couple’s 9th wedding anniversary. They wanted something they could pass down to future generations and thought a ceramic piece would make a good commemorative heirloom. They mentioned their love for terracotta amaryllis, a variety I’d never heard of. Terracotta literally means “baked earth” so I was excited to render the flower in clay tones using a mixture of pink Alabama #clay and a clay called Newman Red from California. #pottery

This is what it looked like before it was fired. At this point, I’d let it dry completely (we call that bone dry) and then I painted it with dirt water (we call that terra sig.) I love this soft, pastel stage and I also love the color shifting alchemy that happens in a hot kiln. The yellow to dark purple is especially wild.

After this I bisque fire, then apply glaze, then fire again. I work in batches so I was making other pots while I made this. #pottery #clay #ceramics #WIP #artprocess

Still warm from the kiln, covered in warm earth tones—I’m so relieved this piece came out successfully on the other side of firing. I worked on it over the course of a month and remembered to document moments of process which I think I’ll share in a thread.

The most important thing to know is that I consider this pot a collaboration. I coordinated the colors, but I didn’t choose them. Each clay tone was a surprise and a gift, and that’s where my excitement about this piece lies. #pottery

I think I enjoy hand building and wheel throwing equally. My upcoming online workshop (previous post) will focus on hand building because it’s the most accessible way to make pottery—no equipment needed. I went through a phase of forming teapots with #PinchPots—yes, like the ones kindergartners make. You take two pinch pots, let them firm up, and then join them together at the rim to create a vessel. It’s a simple technique with endless possibilities. #pottery

She died free.

"Assata Shakur, a fugitive Black militant sought by the U.S. since 1979, dies in Cuba"

https://www.npr.org/2025/09/26/g-s1-90790/assata-shakur-joanne-chesimard-dies

#Assata #BlackPanthers #BlackLiberationArmy

I usually make things for people to use at home, but it seems to me that the only purpose of this bowl is to bob and spin in the Gulf.

#ceramics #pottery #nature #water #beach #Florida #birds #PeacefulMoments

I’m offering this #VirtualWorkshop for the second time on Saturday, October 25. If you’ve ever had an interest in working with #clay, I hope you’ll join me. #Ceramics used to be a free creative medium but has become an expensive hobby. In this workshop, I will explain exactly how to take advantage of the therapeutic benefits of working with clay, but at minimal cost. The workshop is sliding scale beginning at $10. Recording available. More info & signup: https://potterybyosa.com/products/virtual-workshop-clay-is-for-everyone

New moon tonight, fall equinox tomorrow.

https://vimeo.com/233003897

I included these pieces in the exhibition that opened Sunday. The middle piece features the crackled, fragmented surface I wrote about a few weeks back. The two pieces on either end were formed with clay collected from a construction site in Sarasota County and are unglazed. Up close, you can see the grainy sediment including small, black fossil fragments. The Earth is its own document, leaving a record for us to decipher. #WildClay #alttext

@timnitGebru @firesidefedi thank you for responding. I’ll take some time later today to delve a bit deeper into Ethiopian colonial history.

@timnitGebru @firesidefedi I appreciate the brutal honesty but I also think it’s a flex to never have submitted to Western colonization. I do have to admit that I never knew that Africans colonized other Africans in the sense of erasing culture. From what I know, Nigerian empires did not work this way.

@firesidefedi @timnitGebru great conversation! My Ethiopian friends are proud to be from a country that was never colonized so I was surprised when Timnit said that they had! Occupation vs colonization technicality, I guess.

Also, her experience at Google shows how hollow liberalism is. They only wanted aesthetic diversity but at their heart, they exist to maintain the status quo. They fund the Democratic Party. Liberalism is dying, but what will take its place?

@platenworm please clue me in, what’s happened there?