Acknowledging What Was, Embracing What Is

My first 9-5 job was as a potter’s apprentice.
I went into it imagining my throwing skills would blossom, but in reality it was my biceps that grew, not my artistic chops. The potter who hired me, in addition to his pots, sold clay and glazes. So I spent the majority of my days that summer carrying 40-pound bags of clay to other potter’s cars and measuring chemicals for glaze mixtures.

Fragments of What Was ©2025 Elizabeth Fram, Watercolor & knotless netting on paper, 6 x 8 inches

Poof! went my romantic notions of spending my time at the wheel. I left that job mostly having learned that I was glad to be headed to college. And while I didn’t get very far in becoming a potter, I’ve never lost my attraction for things made of clay.

The Futility of Mending Space ©2025 Elizabeth Fram, Watercolor & knotless netting on paper, 6 x 8 inches

I was recently reminded of this story when I dropped a beloved hand-painted clay vase that I picked up at a flea market years ago. What heartbreak! I couldn’t bring myself to toss it out so I ordered a kintsugi kit to put the pieces back together, hoping to give it a second life.

Reconstructing Silence ©2025 Elizabeth Fram, Watercolor & knotless netting on paper, 8 x 6 inches

But in the meantime, I’ve been painting the vase’s shards with dramatic shadows, incorporating knotless netting to accentuate the resulting forms and to insert a suggestion of repair or mending. The outcome is that the memory of the original remains intact, acknowledging what was while simultaneously embracing what is.

This post was originally published on July 17, 2025