Other Creative, Earthy Pursuits

I think farming was actually satisfying some of the creative itch in me.  Since we've been waiting so long for the right opportunity to grow plants and trees again, I got restless and felt a strong urge to pursue more creative outlets.  The result?  My idle hands went from molding life from living earth to living life using molded earth. 

My husband and I both took some ceramics classes in high school, but it had been a while since either of us had done it.  It was fun but pretty challenging and frustrating during my first 10-week session because I couldn't quite figure out how to center larger pieces of clay.  By the second session, I finally started to get it and develop a better feel for the clay.  My husband's great at centering, so it was great to see him shine, throwing big and making a bunch of functional art.

I love the feeling of clay sliding through my fingers.  It's like hypnosis watching the lump of clay spin around and around, becoming rounder with each rotation.  Many of our pieces have become vessels for plant life, while others have found their way into our kitchen or other people's homes.  It feels really good creating something functional and pretty, and I think this might be a fun, therapeutic way to ride this house/land hunt out constructively.  I've dreamed about how amazing it could be to have a working farm/studio where people could farm, make art, do yoga, nourish themselves, and simply enjoy the presence of life.  Then this wretched summer heat snaps me back to the reality that we live in a small box within a concrete jungle and that maybe we need to take some baby steps before those dreams come anywhere near reality.  So... back to other creative, earthy pursuits. 

We still have a lot to learn, especially when it comes to glazing, but here are a few pieces we've made this year: