I have decided to use this blog as a place for me to focus on and record my creative endeavours.
I have been taking pottery classes for a while now…hand building, not the wheel (I have no ‘wheel patience’) – and I love it. It is such great therapy and sometimes I end up with nice pieces to boot!
The thing about pottery though, is that you never really know what the final piece will actually look like…whether it will crack, whether the glaze will turn out how you envisioned it…whether it will survive the kiln!
I have recently had two pieces, that I was really looking forward to seeing finished, get ruined on their final firing – one (a coil bowl) was ruined when another piece in the kiln exploded, sending bits onto my piece, the other (a pinch bowl made with three diff colours of clay) cracked in two in the kiln during it’s final firing…
I was saddened both times, but knew that this happens sometimes…sometimes it can be helped, sometimes not (my piece that cracked on it’s own was too thick in the bottom)…I took both pieces home, not quite able to just throw them out…
Now I realize that I am known to be a ‘bit’ of a pack rat…so I kind of felt silly bringing broken pottery home…I thought I would just ‘sit’ with them for a bit…had no idea what I might do with them…then, just a couple days ago…I don’t even know where the thought came from…but I realized I brought them home to become a part of something else!
I am going to incorporate them into a mosaic…the coil bowl (about 9” in diameter) is going to be a part of a table top and the pinch bowl 'half' (the bigger piece with the nice colour markings on the outside) is going to be a part of a wall panel…I am going to make some tiles to go in the mosaic and also use other elements as well…like glass marbles, beads…still planning it out!
Now I need to learn mosaic making techniques…I haven’t ever made a mosaic!
I have been taking pottery classes for a while now…hand building, not the wheel (I have no ‘wheel patience’) – and I love it. It is such great therapy and sometimes I end up with nice pieces to boot!
The thing about pottery though, is that you never really know what the final piece will actually look like…whether it will crack, whether the glaze will turn out how you envisioned it…whether it will survive the kiln!
I have recently had two pieces, that I was really looking forward to seeing finished, get ruined on their final firing – one (a coil bowl) was ruined when another piece in the kiln exploded, sending bits onto my piece, the other (a pinch bowl made with three diff colours of clay) cracked in two in the kiln during it’s final firing…
I was saddened both times, but knew that this happens sometimes…sometimes it can be helped, sometimes not (my piece that cracked on it’s own was too thick in the bottom)…I took both pieces home, not quite able to just throw them out…
Now I realize that I am known to be a ‘bit’ of a pack rat…so I kind of felt silly bringing broken pottery home…I thought I would just ‘sit’ with them for a bit…had no idea what I might do with them…then, just a couple days ago…I don’t even know where the thought came from…but I realized I brought them home to become a part of something else!
I am going to incorporate them into a mosaic…the coil bowl (about 9” in diameter) is going to be a part of a table top and the pinch bowl 'half' (the bigger piece with the nice colour markings on the outside) is going to be a part of a wall panel…I am going to make some tiles to go in the mosaic and also use other elements as well…like glass marbles, beads…still planning it out!
Now I need to learn mosaic making techniques…I haven’t ever made a mosaic!
I will try to remember to photograph it as I go along...
2 comments:
I love the idea of the mosaic, especially the concept that a broken or discarded piece of beauty should be able to live a second life.
I lay awake in bed last night thinking about how to design and the mechanics of how to do this...I don't mind when creative ideas floating around my head keep me awake at night!
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