1) What is your morning routine?
I try to squeeze in an extra 30 mins while my husband gets up with our kids. Some times the kids come in and wake me up with either kisses or jump on me. The first thing i do when I get up is to clean my tongue with a tongue scraber (a game changer) and brush my teeth. Then I make a veggie smoothie and drink 0,5L of water and take my supplements. This might sound very chill - but I do this while getting the kids ready for kindergarden. When they are out of the door, I grab a thermo cup with coffee and walk my dog. And then the day can start with work, meetings or what ever I'm up to.
2) How do you find moments of calm in a busy schedule?
I recently learned that this is something I have to carve out time for - it will not happen naturally. So I plan my weeks so I have one day free of commitments in office hours. I spend these days with spontaneous coffee dates, naps, watching tv shows, reading, getting a head of domestic tasks or what ever I feel like. I deal with anxiety, panic attacks and grief after two traumatic deaths of a close friend and my dad. So to be able to maintain a normal everyday life with kids, friends, work and so on, I have to prioritise peace and quiet, and therapy, to function.
3) What inspired you to start a course at Yonobi?
I have been wanting to try it out since forever - it looks so calm and mesmerising. And dealing with my mental health, it seemed like a perfect way to get out of my head. Having 3,5 hours every week, with no phone, commitments or pressure to do anything else than to shape and mold clay, has been very therapeutic.
4) What drew you to ceramics and what do you admire about the craft?
I love how it will last forever and with the right skills and imagination you can do just about anything. I hope that the pieces i made during the 6 weeks course will stay with me for a long time, and as I plan to gift some of them to friends and family, I hope they will be happy and cherish the speciel things I made them.
6) What is an important lesson you've learnt since participating in a ceramic course?
It has been very challenging to learn a new skill as an adult. I normally go about my day and work and I do stuff I'm good at. At the ceramics class I was out on deep water. But that was fun and hard and very rewarding to finally get a grip on the wheel throwing and see actual useful pieces emerge. I have definitely become more motivated to hop into some unknown territory and take on the challenge of continuously evolving.
7) Five things you've learnt to appreciate about yourself over time...
My patience
My body
My creative approach to solving problems
My intuition
... and that I hardly ever take the easy way out
8) Three things you are most looking forward to this year...
Drinking the first cup of hot black coffee from my bow cup that I made during the course.
Brighter days.
Taking another ceramics course and improve my new skills.