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Pivot, Pivot, Pivot

Taking a non-traditional approach often segways into a series of seemingly perilous pivots. Trusting the process is harder than it appears. 

Bending, crafting, creating pottery—especially as a beginner—often feels like one big experiment. Online tutorials teach different hand techniques and each potter prefers their own approach. I’d been struggling the past few sessions to center, one of the biggest obstacles to getting started on the wheel. 

I either choked the cone too much and circumcised it or the lump flew off the platform. To drill a hole in the center didn’t feel like love-making either. The walls of the pot quivered and wiggled, protesting against my hands. Each wheel session ended with another failed glob in the bucket.

Sara would describe her movements to me on the wheel, but despite the coaching, a lot of the learning process was intuitive.

Pivot, pivot, pivot. If something didn’t work, how else would it? Would it work better if I angled my hand this way, position my fingers that way, or hunch over a new way? I’m not sure how it happened, but one day, it just clicked. My hands felt more confident and a flow ebbed onto the piece. 

The pure joy at creating a pot, something that looked halfway decent, started a chain reaction of more and more minutes behind the wheel. This time, I felt like I could actually drive.

When you reach any road block, it feels maddening to push past it until failure forces you to pivot. The pivot is frustrating, tiresome, and difficult. It would be so much easier if the first time just worked. But to pivot again, again, and again shows the power of perspective. 

Vent, exasperate, sigh, groan—then shift gears. Redirection is the only way forward. 

[swaamp-studio]

Reclaiming and Living

Clay is quasi-living—it has “memory” and follows the shape of your hands. In the lifespan of a clay blob, it can either become a beautiful piece of artwork… or maybe it ends up being another folded mess on the wheel. But discarded clay can rebirth through a process of rehydrating and re-wedging it into its former malleable shape.

Recently, we took on the challenge of reclaiming all our used clay on a beautiful sunny day.

We mashed up the clay, preparing it for its new life.

Mia spread the clay across a canvas board, evenly distributing it. She signed a heart shape and gave good intentions for the reborn clay to continue helping us continue our ceramics journey.

Reclaiming takes time. It takes energy and effort to reshape, remold, and sometimes it looks different. Whether it’s reclaiming clay or reclaiming your life’s story, anything will take love, compassion, and persistence.

It’s not a secret nor philosophically novel, but we gift ourselves these reminders as we push towards our dreams and goals. In a world that’s pushed by profit and productivity, it can seem like a waste of time to indulge in the stillness. That’s something we’re always trying to unlearn in our studio—to give ourselves grace to simply live.

Be still, be gentle, and—more importantly—be kind with yourselves. You’re doing great.

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Courage in the Unknown

Today, for the first time in her one year of life, Ashi ventured out into our backyard. Found as a tiny runt in a shopping cart in a parking lot, she never truly knew the outdoors. The past year was spent in a small bedroom in a temporary living situation until she was adopted and learned a world beyond a tiny windowed room. Little by little, she ventured out into our living room—and from there, she graduated to a little explorer of the Bungalow.

We didn’t know how she’d react to going outside. At first, she had to be coaxed inch by inch with a Churu to even approach the door.

She sat behind the curtains, terrified yet intrigued. The rustles and chirps of mockingbirds, pigeons, and parakeets echoed in our golden hour backyard.

Ashi felt reluctance and allured at the same time by something so incredibly unknown—innately frightening. But after a few times of darting back and forth between the curtain and first steps, she began to prowl through our garden, chirping along.

By the end of our session, she kept darting back outside even after being taken back in. She was a kitty converted. It was such an overwhelming moment to behold. This cat transformed from being frightened of the world to being emboldened to explore it.

There’s a lot of unknown in the world right now. It’s easy to get caught up in your mind's concept of a thousand deaths rather than living in the present moment. The world may burn tomorrow—or it may not— but for right now, the birds are singing and golden light whispers through the wind chimes of our mango trees.

Take care of yourselves, swampies and swampettes.

[swaamp-studio]

Studio Kitties

Meet Ori and Ashi — our swaamp studio cats!

Ori was adopted from the Key Biscayne Cat Trap and Rescue program. He would follow the children around during recess at a church on the Key and was promptly rescued. After bouncing from foster home to foster home—even ending up in Rome, Italy—he made his way back to Miami and into our studio heart.

Ashi was adopted from a friend of Mia’s. Ashi was found in a parking lot around 1 month old and was likely the runt of her litter. She spent a lot of her time in a temporary housing situation and needed a stimulating, loving home. She was shy and reserved the first few months since adoption and has since blossomed into a confident young feline! She’s got a ton of spunk and a fiery Sagittarius energy.

We think it will pair well with Ori’s Capricorn vibes.

We love our studio kitties dearly 💚

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The Future of Teaching Others

Our predecessor Waavy Studio set the blueprint in our beautiful space for teaching others and finding joy despite everyday challenges — and in that fashion, we try to embody the communal spirit that she brought to our beautiful bungalow before she departed across the pond to Spain.

We toyed with the idea of teaching classes again, and many former students of Waavy Studio asked us on multiple occasions if we’d open up again to the public. We’d love to do that once we’re accustomed to it ourselves (as we are mostly novices and even newer to teaching!).

That’s why it was so exciting to have our first class this past weekend with a dear friend of ours and her mother. We set the stage, intentions, and good vibes for a beautiful evening of clay crafting.

Sara, who also goes by Sarita, giving a demo on the wheel!

By the end of it, we had several beautiful pieces. At once point, both of their pieces flew off the wheel and smacked together in the middle. I wasn’t there to witness it, but Sara showed me how they decided to mesh together the two smushed pieces into an adorable puzzle-piece sculpture.

Community is all that we have in times of darkness. It’s during these moments that we lean on each other and create our own light on gloomy days. Glow on, fireflies! — in true “swaamp” fashion, we have to shine our lights and connect in our beautiful constellation of community.

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Welcome! Swaamp Studio is a private ceramics studio housed in a 1920s coral bungalow in Miami, Florida. We currently have three artists-in-residence (“potters-in-residence”?) and are focused on community, arts, and culture.

Sara, one of our more experienced Potters, wedging clay.

Mia, another one of our artists, playing in our communal native wildflower garden. We went to a seed exchange today and received some plants from Miami Seed Share.

Two butterflies at play in the backyard. The first time we’ve seen sun in a few days, so everything—including us—seems to be happy the tropical warmth returned.

We have two mango trees in the backyard and have been appreciating the mango flowers in bloom. The air is sweet, but not as ripe as those sweet summer days when Mango season is in full force.

We often gather under the trees and jam with our friends in the grass.

We’re incredibly blessed that we all were able to chip in and create a private studio. Without our predecessor Waavy Studio (who relocated to Madrid!), we surely wouldn’t have ceramic magic within our own home.