When Opening the Kiln is a Delight!
( The following is a posting I started writing last week, the idea was to share a visual process of one of my creative endeavors… before I took a picture of the finished product someone scooped it up at our annual Winter Sale last weekend! Sadly – you don’t get to see it but I got a sale & a very happy customer! Yah us! But I thought I’d share what I had with you anyway. :} )
Some things are really worth the wait!
A year ago Kerry’s wonderful sister E., indicated she was interested in a larger version of a vessel I had done ages ago. OK I say, all perky with optimism, that shouldn’t be all the difficult. Yeah right.
First I had to find a mold to use & that meant endless dollar stores to troll. Months late I finally found one that would work.
TA DA:
plastic ugly thing from $! store that will be perfect for a mold!
Then creating the thing… this is what it looks like before the first firing:
Raw Vessel
Then I got to go through 3 more versions after each blew up in the bisque kiln. #%&^^*%^&^& as you can well imagine. ( we still really don’t know why either)
Finally one survives the bisque kiln & glazing. In it went & all I could do was send up a prayer to the kiln Goddess & wait. One week before I got out to Kerry’s to open the kiln.
( This is where the picture would have gone if I hadn’t sold it! Note to self: Take the freaking pictures before putting the item in a sale! )
Focused Energies!
It’s as if I just looked down for a minute & WAM! Two months have passed since my last posting… I have been so focused on clay, mostly working towards making some cool stuff for our annual winter sale (Nov.19th & 20th).
I also finished the latest Phoenix called Motherhood. Some pieces end up far from those first images that flash in my head and yet are exactly what they are supposed to be. Others, rarely, come out of the kiln a physical manifestation of those first visions. Motherhood is the latter. When she came out of the kiln I had to catch my breath it was so eerie, like the clay & glaze had a direct link to my mind without the usual noise & clutter, not to mention the foibles of air pressure, time & kiln moods.
Please understand that this is my concept of Motherhood and since I am without child it will be from that perspective. She has such an intense vulnerability and yet, with her heart nestled between her breasts, intensely protective and nurturing.
Distractions
Doesn’t life has a way of hip checking you out of the game, (like the little hockey reference there? Sooo Canadian, eh?) the good stuff as well as the bad.
The good is obviously the sun, summer is doing its best to burst through and the ground is gushing forth with colour and life.
Birds greeting the sun at Sandoval Lake, Peru.
I feel like these birds, face to the sun and sucking in all that glorious warmth. Ahhhh. My creativity is pulled outside to my little balcony garden and I am enchanted with all the wonderful gardens on my route. It is like I am shoring up the sights, smells and touch for my next clay days. What inspires all you creative types? The gardeners, the cooks, the decorators, the crafters – you know who you are. Share and maybe I’ll discover a new one to check out.
The bad, of course, is the postal job action of which I am a part of. Both sides have taken their positions to the court of the media and the public. It is so stressful dealing with the various fallouts, the unknown not being the least of them. I’m finding myself distracted and deleted by the fear and haven’t figured out a way of using it to fuel my creativity. Have any of you? Please share cause I could use some help on this one.
My poor abandoned work table.
donnae.ca 