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86 | EYEWORLD | SEPTEMBER 2019 O UTSIDE THE OR things that I've completed." She enjoys making pottery that she can use every day like mugs, plates, and bowls. Making a piece can be quite a process. Throwing something on the wheel can take 10–30 minutes to an hour, Dr. Glaser said. You have to let it dry into what is called greenware, and at some point in the drying process, you want to do a little more editing of it. Once the piece is dry, it goes through the firing process and becomes bisqueware. After that, you glaze it and fire it a second time, and you have a finished product. Dr. Glaser said that it may depend on the season and where the pottery is being stored to determine how long it takes to dry. From start to finish, a piece will take about 7–10 days and sometimes up to 2 weeks, but the actual making of the structure is fast and provides that immediate satisfaction. "In more ways than one, my pottery class- es felt analogous to what I was doing in my training," Dr. Glaser said. She even convinced one of her co-residents to take a class with her when she was in Asheville for a second time, and she said that "walking her through the ex- perience of pottery was similar to me teaching cataract surgery." People who go into surgical subspecialties want to be doing something with their hands, Dr. Glaser said, and that's similar across many hobbies. in college and continued this interest in club teams when living in San Francisco. "I swim for exercise, and I find it has been a great way to relax," she said, adding that North Carolina offers good weather for swimming. Dr. Glaser has also developed an interest in pottery. She noted that she thinks the ophthal- mology community in general is very driven toward art. Dr. Glaser made pottery as a child and got back into it after spending time in Asheville, North Carolina during her ophthalmology training. North Carolina is known for pottery and folk art, she said. "There's a whole artist community in Asheville," she said. Dr. Glaser was looking for something to do after work in the clinic when she stumbled upon pottery classes. "Throwing the pot on the wheel, in some ways, is like cataract surgery," she said. "You have to be focused and centered yourself. If it's not centered as its first step, the steps after that won't work." This is similar to cataract surgery, Dr. Glaser said, because if your wound is slight- ly off, for example, every step after that is going to be off. Every step in pottery builds from that first step. After Dr. Glaser returned from Asheville, she continued pottery classes and open studio time in Durham, North Carolina. "Pottery is fun because you can express yourself artistically, then you also have this vase that you can actual- ly use at home," she said, adding that she finds the mugs she's made to be "the most useful continued from page 84 FACEBOOK @EyeWorldMagazine TWITTER EyeWorldMag INSTAGRAM @eyeworldmagazine eyeworld 24/7 YOUTUBE EyeWorldTV.com

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