Julie’s Path to Pottery Artist
It was a long and winding road to get where Julie is today. After reading her story, you might even wonder whether Julie stumbled upon pottery by happenstance, much like one would a four-leaf clover. But Julie would say that you can’t rush God’s plan for your life — that everything will happen when it’s supposed to happen.
Ipswich, Suffolk, England. Circa 1975…
Six-year-old Julie is given a toy pottery wheel and is immediately “besotted with it” — until the paint peels off the cup because without a kiln, you can’t fire (cook) the clay.
Little Julie, even at 6, is practical enough to see the futility in this: Why make a cup you can’t use?
Julie made this tile for art class when she was just 12 years old. Any guesses what inspired the flailing limbs in the tub?
6 years later …
Now 12, Julie is assigned an art class project at school to make a clay tile depicting something from everyday life. Her finished tile shows a hand and foot sticking out of the bathtub. No head in sight. Despite the potentially gruesome scene, little Julie is not in need of counseling. As it turns out, her parents recently added a shower to their existing bathtub, and the whole family is “enamored” with it because it’s their first shower. Ever. So it was a family event, with everyone taking turns to get a shower.
During her father’s first shower, the family heard a “huge crash and a number of words.” Her father had slipped in the shower, grabbed the curtain to catch himself and pulled the whole rod out of the wall. Way to go Dad. (He was fine, by the way.) This excitement is what inspired the scene on Julie’s tile. (As a sidenote: Grandma didn’t know to put the curtain inside the shower and flooded the bathroom.)
But, alas, tile making is a one-time assignment, and little Julie is “devastated.”
Many years later
Grown up Julie is now married to an American in the Air Force and living in Germany.
She needs a job and applies at the base’s recreational center for an open position — ceramics teacher — with “no actual knowledge of how to teach ceramics.”
They hire her “for some strange reason” and teach Julie how to teach people how pour ceramic molds. The center also has a pottery room but, sadly, they don’t have a teacher or the right supplies, tools and equipment.
Trying her hand at pottery continues to elude her.
20 years, 2 kids, several deployments, 3 countries and one hair-dressing career later
The Wards end up in Ohio, and Julie’s daughter is working in watercolors at school — so Julie tries her hand at painting. It’s fun, and Julie is really good at it. Several years later, Julie begins working for a lady who also happens to be a hobby potter and teaches classes.
Julie goes to a class and is hooked. “The smell of the clay, the feel of it on your hands, transforming it into whatever you want …” Julie says, her voice trailing off dreamily.
Crafting pottery is the jelly to Julie’s peanut butter.
Two years later …
Julie gives up her job, she and her husband build a house with a studio, and Julie bravely starts down the path of her dreams.