Ilena Lee Pottery

I am a very flawed person. Unbalanced and with scars. But I have learned that I am very good at healing. As I lose one thing, I gain somewhere else to balance.

Something handmade is always off, even just a little. No human hand could ever be, or ever should be perfect. It’s our gift; impermanence, fragility, imperfection. My hand could never create perfection, as I am so imperfect. But I can strive for beauty. Or transcendance. Or reflection. Perhaps a tiny measure of wisdom. I am very good at scars. I could teach a class on how to scar beautifully.

Clay is a body, perfect as it is, In the earth, unformed, unclaimed.  Outside forces comes to it, my imperfect hands alter, push and pull, attempting to create beauty where before there was merely perfection.

As I am starting to market - and thus talk about - my pottery more and more. I am getting so much wonderful feedback from people. I am loving the dialog between me, my clay, other people, back through me and then back to the studio and my clay!

The most common thing I hear from people is “You should make a stand for your drinking horns. You can’t set your beer down!” To this I say “Who sets a drink down?! I drink my drink and get another!”

Ha Ha Ha… this is all very charming and fun.

But… here comes the dark turn (turn back now, unwitting fan of pottery blogs)...

I have had the occasion this week of attending three events; a big house party, a pub night with a live band, and a night out dancing at a club. This week I noticed something a little bit disturbing. Here it is…

Women don’t put their drinks down (for the most part). Men do.

When needing to use both hands to do something, say texting, my female companions have mastered what I’m going to call the ‘boob tuck” - holding their drink wedged between their bent arm and boob, while working on whatever they need two hands for with this sort of T Rex kind of movement close in to her chest.

If a woman did need full freedom of their arms, most women handed their drink to a friend to hold for them - even if there was a table right in front of them.

In the pub setting where there were many friends around the a table, the ladies did set their glasses down in front of them. But if they had to leave the table - for any reason - they finished their drink first (or in one case, took it with her). The men would leave a glass half full of beer to visit the washroom, and come back to it. Without fail, none of us ladies did that! Not even among trusted friends.

A thousand tiny acts of fear daily, over thousands of days

I move through a sea of treachery, and I can no longer see the forest for the trees…

Small and large drinking horns, Done! I call them my vegan drinking horns. Unglazed agate ware pottery. Glazed a dark blue/green on the inside and lip. They feel so warm and good in the hand!

find these and more at:

Ilena lee here. I like earth, rust, ash and ink.

I make pottery that is both clean, and shows its roots; earthy and elegant. 

I am a witch. Each of my pieces is made with intention. All of the best intentions.

In this blog I will share a bit of my process... I hope you enjoy it!