Jubilee Mondays # 41 - Lighten Up!

Wow, I read back through some of my recent posts and, I gotta tell ya, it's been pretty heavy around here. Of course, a study in James is no lightweight posting and that's just the truth, but someone new to Beer Lahai Roi may think it's a pretty gloomy place.

And...geeminy, it's the Jubilee year! It shouldn't oughta be like that. Sure, there are things that need improving, walls that need breaking, wounds that need healing and all kinds of other stuff that I'm digging up because it's Jubilee and I'm looking, but I've had some fun, too.

One of the most surprising fun things has been my little foray into pottery; we did some more firing a couple of weeks ago and I've got a couple more projects to show off share:

The wreath is intended as a Christmas ornament; I made it from scrap pieces and just glazed it with white crackle, the raku-fired it. I'm gonna tie a ribbon around it and hang it on the tree in a few months. Commemorative of the new creative outlet, you see.
The bowl was another fun thing. I used the coil pieces to make a mug that is going to be high-fired, so I can actually use it for coffee and such, and I decided to try a bowl...graduating the circumferences of the circles. It looks very, um, well...to use the artist instructor Mr. S's term, 'organic' (asymmetric and primitive). I knew I couldn't get it perfect on the first shot, so I even squished it a little to emphasize the wobbly characteristics. It was glazed with 'flashed turquoise crackle', and raku fired. The picture doesn't do it justice...it has a bazillion different colors in it; a lot of shiny coppery color and just a bit of actual turquoise. That's what's so fun about raku; there are so many different variables involved in the firing process that it's impossible to predict exactly what the result will be. Actually, this looks really amateurish to me, but since I am a rank amateur, that's ok.

I had another pot glazed, but it suffered a minor mishap on entering the kiln and needs to have a large chip reglazed so it won't have a big black spot on it.

Nice thing about pottery...it waits well... ;)

This has been a lot of fun and I'm sure I'll keep doing it. I have an idea in my head for a wall hanging...a braided cross...that I want to do someday. Amazing that I assumed that I wouldn't be any good at this and waited so long to give it a try. But, who cares if it's good or not...I'm having fun making it!