Plum Pottery

The stucco facade of Plum Pottery is gradually illuminated by a quarter moon that rises over the edge of this small quiet town. Plum Pottery is a very special place. And tonight, you've been invited to experience this world of imagination and clay with us. The studio doesn't often get visitors this late in the day, but you've come at the perfect time. It's not too busy. And just a few diligence students pack away their latest works of art for the night. The sidewalk outside of Plum Pottery is just as charming as its interiors. With small pieces of stained glass and ceramic tile, creating a wonderful mosaic that blends into the studio floor. The tiles come in all different shapes and colors. Many, a fitting terracotta, but others, a deep cyan or a lively seafoam. It is as if the creativity happening inside is beginning to shift the outside world. Towards the back of the studio is the kiln, the life force of this place. The temperature of the kiln is like a warm blanket as you approach it. And the shelves surrounding it show off many freshly thrown pieces in the process of drying before they can be fired. All sorts of different vases, mugs, and water pitchers wait here in rest for their moment to harden and be glazed. We invite you to come in and set aside your worries as you dive into the clay. But before we get our hands dirty, let's take a moment to try a brief wind-down exercise. Tonight's wind-down is a visualization. So, when you're ready, let's begin. So, just take a moment to get comfortable, letting go of the day, enjoying that feeling of having stopped, of having nothing left to do. We're going to focus the attention of the mind on the different parts of the body. Watching as the muscles in the body switch off for the night, leaving the body feeling rested and leaving the mind more at ease. So, starting down the toes and feeling a sense of the muscles switching off. The feet, arches, all those muscles switching off. Same in the lower half of the legs. Notice any tension being let go off as the muscles switch off, shut down. In the upper half of the legs, any tension melting away, being let go off into the area of the hips, the pelvis. Again, any muscles shutting down for the night, completely at rest. Everything from the waist downward is heavy, at ease. The muscles in the lower back and the stomach are now switching off. Middle of the back around the diaphragm, the upper back, and the chest. So, any muscles not needed shutting down, switching off for the night. The shoulders switching off. The upper half of the arms and the lower half of the arms switching off. The hands, fingers, just switching off. Any muscles around the throat and the neck, switching off. The head, the face, the jaw, the...