Daire Rose || Pottery as Self-Care
Okay, wow, the first interview in my Artist Series!! Meet the amazing and incredible Daire Rose. Daire Rose is a doula, "herby witch person," sex educator, and caretaker. They are also a potter!
I met them four summers ago while living in Xlendi Bay Gozo in Malta for a ethnographic field school. We lived with two other awesome people and collectively called ourselves the Stray Cats of Gozo.
Four years ago in Trendy Xlendi!
Daire Rose FaceTimed me to talk about the magic art of pottery. Here's what I learned about their journey into pottery.
It wasn't a smooth journey, rather it was an emotional one:
Daire Rose's first exposure to the wheel was in middle school at Camp Friendship. There they learned how to use the wheel as well as hand-building. They'd had always been a crafty + artistic child was mezmorized by not being able to handle the wheel.
“Oh! I can’t actually just go into this
”
The stress of being a full time college student, doula training, and full time working led Daire Rose to day dream about pottery. Once doula degree program ended they found themself in a community that focused on self-care.
“Oh, I should actually take care of myself like my body is telling me to, so I signed up for this class at a really small art studio. With five other women who were all in their 50s and 60s.
”
So they began classes at a small art studio.It seemed that the learning was over when session one ended because that was all that was affordable. BUT
“The women from that class ended up paying for two sessions after that so that I could get better!
”
This just displays how much community can grow from shared craft, and how beautiful people can truly be. And...now about a year since throwing, a craiglist wheel finds itself on Daire Rose's back balcony!!! Through some reteaching they are able to throw once a week or so and have that time with the clay.
“Its such an emotional journey, I’ve learned, with pottery. And I really love that aspect to it, how intense it is. Its a whole-body thing: your arms and your core are so engaged when you’re throwing on the wheel. And you cannot be thinking about anything else or the clay is going to control you. A lesson in leaving things at the door, which is hard for me, but I was able to process better once I got off the wheel. Or even subconsciously...things leave the body into the clay. ”
I wanted to know the most wonderful and magical part of pottery making, and also the hardest part.
With some laughter they replied that, "centering is the least favorite part, takes forever, most important part." It tends to be that way right? The technique which makes any art form truly beautiful is the hardest and most uncomfortable.
For Daire Rose, the creatice element of carving into clay pieces and designs after dried a little bit. And making tiny things on the objects is the best part.
At this point, I brought up hands. Which I have always found so spiritual, magical, and amazing. Luckily for me, I am not the only one who feels this way....
Daire Rose exaplained that touching and creating with their hands is what heals them...
“I am also in awe of hands + the way the look + what they do. Touching clay + being covered in mud is a thing that grounds and comforts me. And seeing thing thing as I make and and building it seeing it changing shapes— makes me feel in control. ...when you feel disconnected from your body and like life really sucks and you see something that you’ve made and are in control of. It reminds you that you’re good.”
With this deep emotional + physical journeying during creation, I wanted to know where the inspiration for the actual objects was birthed.
“Plants and leaves. My environment is very heavy with plants — always guiding shapes and movement that I want to create.
”
We talked about the idea of growing the pottery and of this work as a movement and cultivation. For some anthropolical insights to that check out Elizabeth Hallam and Tim Ingold's Book Making and Growing: Anthropological Studies of Organisms and Artefacts -- chapter 9 "Making Plants and Growing Baskets" wonders if woven baskets are made or grown. There is also a nice chapter on pottery :)
"In regard to making and growing, it might be supposed that baskets lie clearly in the domain of making. Indeed the boundary between growing plants and making baskets appears ‘clear cut’. Arguably, ‘cutting’ marks the division between plant and artefact in basket-making, for when the plants used for basketry are cut, it seems that they are conceptually transformed from plant to material and begin their journey towards a ‘finished object’. Implicit in this argument is the notion that plants grow of their own volition, in domains quite distinct from that of humans, and that once cut, the plant is now ‘dead’, ceasing to grow through its own efforts. What future ‘growing’ the plant may do, it is assumed, is henceforth managed through the nurturing agency of human hands, which control the transformation of material into artefact through the act of making. This assumption is underpinned by the idea that making takes place in a uniquely human domain, quite distinct from the domains of plants and from processes of growing" (Ingold and Hallman 2014, emphasis mine).
As their pottery teacher used to say that "It isn't what you are doing: you and the clay are working together"
“So it really is this dance between you + the material”
And it isn't always perfect + centered as the potter would like, making the relationship a very real one.
All of this creation, where does it go?
Simple: gifts, selling them for fundraisers for the doula project in Richmond, use them in their own home. And currently: Building a stock for an online shop.
What power. To be able to use the things crafted from one's own hands. That never ceases to amaze me. Even to the creator it is still shocking
“it’s very emotional + special to use this thing that you’ve worked on”
As Daire Rose says, working with clay isn't easy + the result isn't always perfect. It has been a journey of accepting wonky pieces and telling themself: "You still did this."
You can check out Daire Rose's instagram for some plant beauty + pottery updates. https://www.instagram.com/swamp__baby/
All the images are from the artist themself!! (Thank you!)
Huge huge huge thanks for taking the time to talk with me!!!!
-Em
P.S. If you make art of any kind + want to talk to me about it, I'd love to hear from you! Comment below or email or text me!
