Plum Pottery

On a cool autumn evening under the rising quarter moon, a streetlight at the edge of a quaint town road turns on to illuminate the stucco facade of Plum Pottery, where you've been invited to experience a world built of imagination and clay. Plum Pottery 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 diligent students pack away their latest works of art. The name of the studio has been beautifully embellished on the glass of the front door. The P in Plum holds a ripe purple fruit with a single green leaf designed in its center for a playful accent. Meanwhile, a ceramic picture has been painted into the P in Pottery, and a red mug hangs on the curve of the lowercase y. The design as a whole feels playful and welcoming, as is just about everything happening inside. Before you enter Plum Pottery, where the brick of the sidewalk and the entrance meet, small pieces of stained glass and ceramic tile start to replace the grout underfoot. 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. No matter what stress follows you into the studio, feel free to set it aside and relax. To help, let's take a moment and try a brief wind-down exercise. Tonight's exercise is a really simple breathing exercise. So when you're ready, let's begin. So first get yourself comfortable. Now just bringing the attention to the breath, just noticing where you feel it in the nose, the throat, the chest, the diaphragm. You're nice and relaxed. We going to be taking a deep breath in for four, holding it for four, and then breathing out for six. So are you ready? Let's begin. In four, two, three, four. Hold it for four, two, three, four. Now breathing out for six, two, three, four, five, six. In for four, two, three, four. Holding for four, two, three, four. Out for six, two, three, four, five, six. In for four, two, three, four. Holding for four, two, three, four. Out for six, two, three, four, five, six. In for four, two, three, four. Holding for four, two, three, four. Out for six, two, three, four, five, six. Great. Now returning the breath to normal. Kilns of different sizes line the back walls of the studio. Their metal exterior reflecting back the mosaic of tiles on the ground. Loading a kiln is its own art form. Weight distribution, and an understanding of how heat affects different types of clay ensures the safety of the ceramics inside. Here they have been layered with care, and await their time to be fired. A stack of small elephants raise their trunks at you from where they walk upright in the kiln, next to heart shaped...