Another shot of a vessel I didn't have time to do justice to.
Pottery kits are also an excellent idea for kids who seem to have an interest in pottery but often flit from one interest to another fairly quickly. Unique handmade pottery
This Saturday we spent the day at Illyria Pottery, Oxford. We have wanted to visit the shop to meet Katie and Micah for so long!
Ceramicist Miro Chun proves that dropping out of a pottery class means nothing if you're willing to keep learning.
A friend shared with me today the lovely art/idea of Kintsugi (Kinsukuroi). Kintsugi is the traditional Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with a strong adhesive and then sprinkling the adhesive with gold dust. The result is that the broken pottery is now mended and in fact even stronger than the original. Instead of trying to hide the flaws and cracks, they are accentuated and celebrated because they now have become the strongest part of the pottery. I love the idea that each of us can be mended and become even stronger than we originally were through Christ. Often we view ourselves as not measuring up, not good enough, not perfect ... broken. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland gave a talk in 2006 entitled Broken Things to Mend. In his talk, Elder Holland shares the following insights: "The first words Jesus spoke in His majestic Sermon on the Mount were to the troubled, the discouraged and downhearted. “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” He said, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Whether you are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or among the tens of thousands listening this morning who are not of our faith, I speak to those who are facing personal trials and family struggles, those who endure conflicts fought in the lonely foxholes of the heart, those trying to hold back floodwaters of despair that sometimes wash over us like a tsunami of the soul. I wish to speak particularly to you who feel your lives are broken, seemingly beyond repair.... If you are lonely, please know you can find comfort. If you are discouraged, please know you can find hope. If you are poor in spirit, please know you can be strengthened. If you feel you are broken, please know you can be mended." What a beautiful concept, that Christ will take us as we are, broken and tattered, and he will mend us and help us become even more than we could ever become on our own. There is a song that I love that expresses this so beautifully, Broken, by Kenneth Cope. Broken clouds give rain Broken soil grows grain Broken bread feeds man for one more day Broken storms yield light The break of day heals night Broken pride turns blindness into sight Broken souls that need His mending Broken hearts for offering Could it be that God loves broken things Broken chains set free Broken swords bring peace Broken walls make friends of you and me To break the ranks of sin To break the news of Him To put on Christ till His name feels broken in Broken souls that need His mending Broken hearts for offering I believe that God loves broken things And yet, our broken faith, our broken promises Sent love to the cross And still, that broken flesh, that broken heart of His Offers us such grace and mercy Covers us with love undeserving This broken soul that cries for mending This broken heart for offering I'm convinced that God loves broken me Praise His name—my God loves broken things So, broken cloud—Give rain And broken soil—Grow grain And broken bread—Feed man for one more day As we turn to the Savior to be healed and to be perfected, we may just find ourselves more filled with gold than with pottery. And through Him we will be able to be whole, to be good enough, to be perfect. Perfection isn't a life without flaws, it's a life where those flaws are mended, our hearts are healed, and we remember to Keep Breathing.
Egyptian history intertwines with Old Testament events, but it can be confusing to try to harmonize the two. Gary Bates introduces some of the issues for laypeople.
You’ll have a whole new appreciation for art . . . honestly.
Wabi sabi - an appreciation of the simple pure beauty of things. It is about embracing the imperfect, the impermanent, unconventional and incomplete.
As the blog Slim Expectations turns 3, they have celebrated with a blogging contest filled with a whole lot of prompts (including themes...
Grab your apron and try your hand at throwing, spinning and decorating your own wares at a pottery class or cafe in London.
Take a broken ceramic dish and transform it into a beautiful work of art with gold by using Japanese Kintsugi pottery repair.
I've been cooing over the sweet work of Julie Whitmore and her French Faience style of handcrafted pottery. She sells her work through boutique galleries such as Earth Angels and Birds of a Feather. She also has an Etsy shop where she mainly sells commissioned pieces. I clicked through her 'sold works' and her delightful blog to assemble what you see here. If you're lucky to live near Julie, her work will be featured in a showing at Birds of a Feather (805-927-2391) in Cambria, CA this November 7 & 8! xo Shadowbox Sculpture inspired by a poem by Gerald M. Hopkins Speak to the Earth Pair of nature cups Red Stripe Cottage Salt and Pepper Covered Farmhouse Dish Wood Thrush Cottage Cup with Pink Blossom Handle Portrait of a Sedge Warbler
Not everyone can work from home or cease traveling. Here’s what you can do when circumstance forces you to be out and about during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Whew! What a busy weekend! Saturday and Sunday my husband and I fished in the local fishing derby with our friends and their two-year old son. We even had a taste of having a kid when he spent the night with us Saturday! Then Monday, I FINALLY finished painting my master bathroom!!! It took me all week! It's been so hot and humid that I had to paint in spurts...the sweat just started pouring off me after 10 minutes of painting! Either way, our bathroom renovation is finally underway...It used to be a light grayish-brown color...essentially the same color as the cupboards are currently painted. I swear, the people who lived in this house before we bought it had the weirdest color tastes! Our next step is to paint the cupboards, buy a new sink and counter top, and update the vanity and light fixture. I'm also going to tile in those really cool alcohol ink tiles I've seen on Pinterest for a back splash instead of the molding! You can see three of them set up on the molding that I've started to play around with. Currently, my room at school is being cleaned, so it will probably be a week before my supplies are delivered to my room and I can organize everything for the new year. Is it weird that my favorite part of summer is receiving my supplies and organizing them??? I LOVE organizing stuff! As of right now at home, I'm just working on my 6th grade curriculum. I've decided that for each cultural unit, student will work out of a note packet. The note packets will include fill-in-the-blanks from the power points I use, planning pages for project planning, vocab definitions, and reflection pages where students will have to answer various questions about their projects upon completion (hello common core!). I did this last year with my Greek unit and it really seemed to help students learn and use the vocabulary more during the project. Here are some examples of what I've included into my packets below:
Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer mixed with powdered gold or silver. As a philosophy, the belief is that the object is more valuable and beautiful with its history revealed. But how can you adapt a pottery repair technique to your art journal? By adapting Kintsugi as a transformative tool […]
In order to sustain the higher levels of consciousness available now, we must be able to integrate these higher energies into our physical bodies.
I've just sent off the last of my work for the upcoming BLUE show at Object Gallery, which opens next week. I've had a ball working on these pieces and despite numerous technical hiccups (making large round flat things from porcelain can be a little challenging sometimes) I got there in the end. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was working with the phrase something old something new something borrowed something blue, which refers to a wedding tradition for good luck that apparently goes back to Victorian times. Blue was said to symbolise love, loyalty and fidelity and the works I've made explore some ideas around love and marriage and the rituals and traditions that go with that. I came across some fantastic stuff in researching this, but some of my favourites were the endless lists of top ten wedding songs. Here's just one of them. Top 10 Wedding Songs 1 Everything I do (I Do It For You) Brian Adams 2 Tonight I Celebrate My Love (Peabo Bryson & Roberta Flack) 3 My Heart Will Go On (Celine Dion) 4 Light Up My Life (Debby Boone) 5 I Will Always Love You (Whitney Houston) 6 Hoplessly Devoted To You (Olivia Newton John) 7 The Wind Beneath My Wings (Bette Midler) 8 Can't Smile Without You (Barry Manilow) 9 I Just Called To Say I Love You (Stevie Wonder) 10 I Got You Babe (Sonny & Cher) Not so sure about number 6... I would have thought a song about a girl being dumped and nursing her broken heart might not be such a good omen as a wedding song, although always happy to see Livvy on a list. A glaring omission from this list is of course that all-time classic love song "My Endless Love" which (according to Wikipedia) is "the greatest love song of all time" (must be true then). Think Blue Lagoon, Lionel Richie, Diana Ross, lots of breathy singing and extended wavering vowels, long looks and dramatic crescendos. When it comes to wedding songs it doesn't get much better than this....???!! BLUE opens July 31st and kicks off Object's Spring Series 2010. You can read a little more about the show and the artists involved here. And here's some fascinating facts about the song My Endless Love, and a live rendition by Lionel and Di (wearing a very fetching frock). Go on, you know you want to.
KINTSUGI : mot japonais signifiant jointure d'orCet art japonais consiste à réparer la céramique cassée avec une laque mélangéeà une poudre d'or, ce qui permet à l'objet de revivre de sa blessure, devenue précieuseCette techn
Adinkra symbols are of African origin and reflect a system of human values that are universal: family, integrity, tolerance, harmony, determination, & protection among many others… I am S…
DIY Raku Kiln: How to make a DIY Raku Kiln. Follow this simple 8 step process to make your own DIY Raku Kiln.
We know all too well that using ceramics over time will involve some of them becoming chipped or broken. Instead of throwing them away there is a Japanese practice which highlights and enhances the breaks creating a beautiful piece of art. It’s called Kintsugi , or Kintsukuroi , literally golden (“kin”) and repair (“ts
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