She Gave Up Her Grandmother’s Watch for an Abandoned Potter’s Wheel — Then Collectors Began Fighting Over What She Created
Chapter 11
Five years after the first auction, Mara’s pottery was internationally known.
Museums displayed her work.
Collectors fought over limited editions.
A major auction house sold one of her largest vessels for $180,000.
Reporters called her a sensation.
Mara still drove the same old truck.
She still used the old wheel.
She still worked in a studio that smelled like clay.
One journalist asked:
“Why haven’t you opened a factory?”
Mara laughed.
“Because then I’d have a factory.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’d have to run a factory.”
The journalist laughed.
“But you could make millions.”
“Probably.”
“Don’t you want to be wealthy?”
Mara thought.
“I want to be free.”
“What’s the difference?”
“Money gives you options.”
She looked toward the wheel.
“Enough money gives you obligations.”
The journalist nodded.
Mara continued teaching.
Her students began winning awards.
Some opened their own studios.
One became a museum curator.
Another became an art professor.
A third returned every year to help younger students.
Mara’s garage became a community.
The old wheel became a symbol.
People traveled to see it.
A museum offered to buy it.
Mara refused.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“It’s still working.”
“Would you consider loaning it?”
“Maybe.”
But never selling.
She had learned something from her grandmother’s watch.
Some objects were valuable because they couldn’t be replaced.
The watch had been frozen at 4:17.
The wheel had turned for decades.
She had traded one family treasure for another.
The difference was that the wheel had given her something back.
Not money.
A future.
