Be outside

*A mug made with the clay collected from the red hills of Grand Junction!*

Spending time outside has always been one of my favorite ways to reset my brain and remember that we are all, as my little brother would say, “tiny specks on a floating rock”. It’s so easy to get trapped in the daily chaos of life— wondering if I should have said something different in a conversation from three days ago, or contemplating taking vitamins every day for the rest of my life. The moment I step outside, and step into nature, everything shifts and my worries about the past and future melt away. The world is massive. The universe is incomprehensible (maybe just to me?) Suddenly, my little to-do list and a pile of laundry sitting on my bed don’t feel like the center of my world anymore. I get to just be—soaking in the air, and sunshine, the absolute miracle that I exist at all.

I had one of those very intense transformational experiences of connecting with nature recently. Yes, very dramatic, I know. It happened while I was in Grand Junction, Colorado, visiting my boyfriend’s family for New Year’s. If you know anything about Grand Junction, keep those thoughts to yourself please, it’s actually a really lovely place…in some areas. His mom took us girls on a trail run, and as I was going through my zen Buddha experience, I noticed the clay under our shoes. I start to look around and notice that it’s pretty much everywhere.

*Legit me digging clay for my Terrestrial Collection.*

I thought about stopping right there and digging it up with my hands and making the girls shove some in their pockets. I refrained. Instead, my boyfriend and I came back with a shovel and some bags at sunset. We collected from a few different areas because the texture and color varied a little bit. Some areas must’ve had more moisture because the clay was already moldable, and in other spots it was crumbly and I was really questioning if it was just dirt. The red clay we collected had a higher level of iron oxide, and the grayish-blue clay had less oxygen exposure, so the iron had not oxidized completely.

While we were collecting the clay, a thought crossed my mind—wait, is this even legal? Can I just… dig up the earth and then take it home? And then, of course, TSA did in fact thoroughly inspect my large bags of what appeared to be dirt. But the bags and I made it home to my pottery studio, where I added water, and sand collected from the beach. Talk about material from all around the world! There is something really special about being able to make functional and decorative pieces of pottery that come from the two places that mean the most to me and my family. I grew up in Colorado, and love living in California. I hope you enjoy the pieces from this collection, make time to go outside, and realize we’re all made from the same stuff. Kinda :).

From Earth To Kiln: A Grand (Junction) Clay Adventure

Be outside