Hunkering down in the studio with my whimsical friends...
Making and claying around.
Are you a lover of clay?
I love all sorts of clay.
Low fire, high fire, oven fire, raku.
Collecting it, admiring it.
Sculpting with it.
What an amazing thing that clay, wouldn't you say?
Little friends line up.
I look to them for sparkles of inspiration and such.
Hope they behave ;)
Or rather, maybe it's more fun if they misbehave??
Mooshing and smooshing and squishing clay about...
Bringing little things to life.
When I was a little girl I watched a show on PBS I think?
Where a woman, I think in South America, would go out into the hills outside of her village and collect this really red clay.
She would then take it to her studio and make all sorts of fabulous things.
I was in 2nd grade.
We lived in the middle of nowhere.
Like really, the middle of nowhere.
It was the desert in a very old mining area up in the hills.
There were all dirt roads, a great discovery made by my dad, this place.
(which has since become quite populated)
I was always up to some mad shenanigans.
You know, hanging out on the roof in full costume, wig included.
Or, picnicing alone in a tree by a scary mine.
Anyhow, point is...
I saw a hill that had some very red dirt, much like the PBS show I had watched.
So, I took a bucket and collected a bunch of dirt.
My dad hollering, Vanesssssssa, what are you doing up there?
And me saying, ohhh nothing.... :)
After I collected a bunch of clay I chopped up little leaves and weeds, and mixed them with the clay.
Then I sculpted some little pots and bowls, and put them on bricks in the hot sun to dry.
It actually worked.
I was so thrilled.
My hands were stained terracotta red.
Of course, they were not fired so they fell apart over time out in the weather.
But what I think is that, that day was the day I became a true clay lover.
I would love to build my own brick kiln in the back.
Wouldn't that be fun?
Isn't it funny, how you can pinpoint a time in your life that made you a lover of one of your fave arts & crafts?
What's one for you?
Love, V
