Hello everyone! Today I want to share my love for pottery with you all. I have been taking pottery classes at a local art center for about a year and a half. It’s so much fun making things with my hands. Pottery is a great hobby for retirees. My class is full of senior citizens. A ceramics studio is a fun and friendly space for anyone.
personal growth
Retiring early can be tricky. Most workers dream of a leisurely life in retirement, but that's not the right goal. It might be fun to play video games and watch TV all day for a few months. However, it gets boring after a while. You need to have a goal to make life interesting.
When I retired from my engineering career, I became a stay-at-home dad/blogger. Being a father to a toddler is challenging and it kept me busy for many years. Blogging takes up the rest of my time. Now that my son is a teenager, he doesn't need as much attention. I still spend a lot of time driving him to events, but he doesn't need the supervision that he used to. He prefers to be with his friends than with me. This is understandable. Unfortunately, blogging is also disappearing. I am also increasing my efforts in this regard.
So I have a lot more personal time lately. This was a big reason why I started taking pottery classes. I had the time, I loved ceramics, and I wanted to see what I could do. Pottery has proven to be a very enjoyable pursuit. It feels great to make some ceramics by hand. I've made a lot of stuff and I'm getting better every day. It’s so satisfying to get better at something. This is the key to a happy retirement. You need personal growth.
I think this is why some workers become unhappy when they retire. People think they will enjoy leisure, but in reality it can become boring. Stagnation is only one step away from recession. All this can wait until I'm 75. You need to find something fun to do and grow from.
things i make
Okay, let's get started with the RB40 Mini Art Show. Here are some things I've been doing since last year.
My top 4 pieces! The purple spoon rest is used almost every day. The red sauce bowl is used by Ms. RB40 to place tea bags. The copper bowl is my key bowl. The rustic yellow cup is out there somewhere.
I peaked at Portlandia last year. I collected these ginkgo fruits from street trees and placed them on a ginkgo leaf plate that I made. Ginkgo nuts are very smelly, but the nuts are delicious and good for your health. I'll have to find more this year.
Sweetened ginkgo nuts.
Chicken satay with spicy peanut sauce, sticky rice and pickled red onions. Um!
Ms. RB40 received a restaurant-sized bottle of soy sauce from the local Buy Nothing group. It takes up a lot of space on the counter. So I made a small soy sauce jar to save space. This is why I love pottery. You can make what you need without having to go out and buy it.
California roll plate. RB40Jr's favorite.
Last night, I made Thai Chicken Curry and served it in my largest bowl. It was delicious.
fermentation
I also entered the fermentation stage. In my mind, this is a hobby adjacent to ceramics. Hahaha…I made a big kimchi fermenter last year and have had several batches of kimchi. This is my latest fermenter in action. The water seal was too shallow, but it seemed to be fine this time.
Banana for reference.
I fermented these serrano peppers with a few cloves of garlic for six weeks. It was a little uncertain at first because I didn't submerge them in water. After a few days I realized I could use a small bowl and push them under the brine. This fermentation turned out very well.
Spicy!
I mixed the peppers and garlic together and added some vinegar. The hot sauce is great. But I wasn't nervous. That's it.
A friend in ceramics class gave me a SCOBY starter to brew kombucha. This is my first batch. It has just completed its first stage of fermentation. I poured the kombucha into juice bottles and added some raspberries from our backyard for a second stage of fermentation. If I'm lucky it adds a little fizz and the bottle doesn't explode. I knew it wasn't the right bottle. I need to buy a few twist top mason jars soon. I added more tea to the ceramic jar to start another batch.
Pottery is not a cheap hobby
I hope you enjoyed my mini art exhibition. The only downside to pottery is that it is an expensive hobby. My classes are getting more expensive. The cost for 10 classes this quarter is $400. Most students are lucky to get 10 bucks back at the end of the course. Open workshops cost $10 per session, and a bag of clay sells for about $20. Luckily, I can afford to take on this hobby. The ceramics community is also very friendly. marvelous.
Are you retired? Do you have a fun hobby or something that encourages personal growth? Next I'm brewing a batch of ginger beer. 
The post Why I Love Making Pottery appeared first on Retire at 40.
