This month marked the end of 2 major commitments. I finished my 100 DPS days and my placement at the gallery officially ended. Finishing the 100 days felt like a huge accomplishment and gave me time to reflect on how important it is to maintain creativity outside of work. Throughout this year I have found it hard to juggle working while finding the time to still have some sort of creative outlet. After spending so much time producing academic outcomes I realised I had not given myself enough space to enjoy creativity without pressure. Because of this I decided to start a six week beginners ceramic course at Ceramic Deptford.
I found ceramics much harder than I expected. Working with clay is a lot more physical than photography and required a completely different skill set than what I was used to. Initially I struggled with the techniques such as centering and coning but I enjoyed the challenge of trying something new. This uncertainty is something I would have shied away from at the beginning of my DPS which shows the growth of my self confidence. Instead of becoming frustrated when pieces didn;t turn out as a I planned I reminded myself that this is a part of the learning process.
Attending this course consistently helped me maintain a healthier creative / university work balance as I had to improve my organisation skill so I could commit to these weekly classes. I also started to schedule in meetings with academic support to get feedback on my reflective report. Although the ceramics course was informal, I found it really nice to be in a collaborative creative space without the pressure. Sometimes at university the academic pressure makes the environment feel to intense whereas at the ceramic studio as we were all learning together it felt very inclusive.