Offering Vessels, Alter Bowls........something a little different

by Staci Louise Smith

It has been a long time since any of us have blogged on here.  This year has been taxing for many of us, and life is just busier with more important things at the moment (family always comes first!!!).  

I have taken some time this year to play and lightend up my schedule.  I am not doing spring and summer shows, so that I have time to work on other things and spend more time with the family. 

I took some time on our beautiful spring day yesterday to get out my ceramic clay.  

I have been wanting to make something bigger than beads with my  clay, so I thought I would make offering bowls.  I don't do anything formal as far as alters or offerings, but I do have little "alters" to nature of sorts all over my house.  I love little dishes full of natures treasures in all parts of my home.

This one is a polymer clay dish I made, on top of a huge slab of petrified wood.  In it are bones and skulls that my youngest son has collected on our travels.

This bowl is a piece of natural driftwood, to which I added an awesome stone that is very round, and a piece of arragonite.

This cool bowl is actually a rock I found in upstate PA.  It has a natural concave shape, as if it were part of a large hollow form.  Inside is little sea treasures we have found in NJ, including the horse tooth.

I made this large ceramic bowl with Kristie the owner of Artisan Clay.  (so many years ago.......)  It has since been filled with my favorite beach treasures.  (are you beginning to see why I need more bowls?)

I have also been collecting some really cool crystals, and would like a place to show them off.  

This specimen is tourmalated quartz (aka rutilated quartz).  It is one of my favorite stones to use in jewlery.  So it was REALLY cool to see this- which is tourmaline, in the middle of being encrusted into the quartz.  I am so fascinated by stones.

This little guy is a most heavenly blue- and its called celestitie.

And how could I resist this labradorite?

(I have a rock shop near me, its not good folks.......lol)

Anyhow, I had so much fun making bowls yesterday, I plan to do another batch today.  I cannot wait until these are dry and can be fired.  I plan to try some different things on the surface too, since I haven't gotten into glazing my pottery (yet)

I put little legs on some of the bowls, because I really like how it looks.  It lifts up whatever you want to display on it.

I made a couple of larger pieces, like this one.  I didn't add any feet to them, and I think I love the feel of them the best.  They turned out very organic.

I did some stamping on some as well, and then went in with hand embellishing them further.

 You can see how they are raised up just a bit.  I really hope it all fires well.  Been a long time since I did ceramics.  I think it's like riding a bike though.................

Of course, this is my favorite.  I plan to keep it, but I will make more similar bowls today.  I love the organic feel of it.  I used a cool shell and fossil to make the imprints, and then added my own touch with the spiral center and designs around the edges.  

I simply cannot resist things that look as if they were dug up from the earth.  There is something about a piece with history that gets me every time.

I cannot express how fun it is to dabble in a new medium now and again.  My daughter joined me and she made some bowls too.  It has been equally wonderful to be able to spend so much more time with the kids.  I really missed that and didn't realized how much I worked until I didn't.  I still need to keep $$ coming in though, so, I am still producing, and some of these will be for sale as well.  So stay tuned.  You can follow my facebook page for updates to see when they are available.

Do you have "collections" of items around your home?  Do you arrange your art and findings into little alters in your home?  Share your hoards of collections with us on the Love My Art Jewelry Facebook!!! page!

reminders

mary jane dodd

'nature is an infinite sphere 

whose center is everywhere 

and whose circumference is nowhere.'

~ blaise pascal

on the east coast this week we are being reminded of the power, the reach, the wonder of the natural world... (mother nature is equitable, we all get turns)

and so i grew quiet and became attentive... 

i know that the brilliance of autumn is just around the corner...

and that, as always, balance is key... 

Home Sweet Home

Hi, All! It's been a while since I've been on the LMAJ blog. I'm just now feeling a little bit settled since we made the big move from West Texas to North Carolina. It's been a long trip in more ways than one. Life could not be more different here. For one thing it's really, really green.  West Texas summer is hot, dry and kind of brown. And there are hills here and it rains...a lot.

The house we moved into hasn't been lived in for more than 3 years. You can probably picture the state of the gardens. Total wreck. We've spent many hours out there cleaning things up. It's something of an obsession of mine right now. I love to grow things. Yes, I know this is a jewelry blog but we're getting there. Truly.

The heat last week chased me back inside and to my new studio. Air conditioning is the best thing since sliced bread! I'd show you pictures of the new studio but it's a disgraceful mess right now. It's starting to feel like home sweet home. Maybe another time I'll give you a tour?

These are some of the things out in the garden that are inspiring my work right now. Coreopsis, bitty baby tomatoes, new leaves, tickseed. It's not so much about the colour as the shapes. I love the form of seed heads, the unfolding of leafs, opening blossoms. I take a little tour every morning as the day is getting light. I'm looking for new small wonders to reveal themselves. I'm never disappointed and always feel quite in awe of the beauty of quietly growing things.

Bronze head pins. I never in a million years would have thought I might make head pins. But they just seemed the way to put together beads into something that mirrored my feelings about all of the lush green growing things out there in my little world.

And bead caps. I have one hundred zillion ideas in my head for bead caps.

These are my tomatoes. OK, I know they don't really look that much like tomatoes. But that's the great thing about taking a leap from the literal to the abstract. You can use what you see, what feels good as a spring board to expressing your own unique world view. 

So what's inspiring you right now?

'simplify,

mary jane dodd

simplify.' 

~ henry david thoreau

sometimes in the simplest things we are most challenged and most rewarded... 

during the course of this past week, i tried something new... 

making leaves...

this experiment, while novel to me, felt anything but... instead it was as if they had been there all along... the techniques i had been applying elsewhere finding their true purpose in these types of pieces... 

'the clearest way to the Universe 

is through a forest wilderness.'

~ john muir

my artspark challenge entry

RAW - the 52 week journey

mary jane dodd

'logic will get you from A to B.

imagination will take you everywhere.'

~ albert einstein

and the natural world will provide more to muse upon than anything else... 

this ring was made after a day spent going in and out of the house, noticing the fresh green shoots and leaves covered with the silvery veil of ici-ness which fell in the way of snow, sleet and hail... how fragile and yet hearty are the first stirrings of spring... 

while walking this week i noticed birds flying with grasses in their beaks; squirrels rustling through leaves, scampering up trees with their mouths filled... 

searching for the perfect fork in which to entrust their new homes... 

preparing for nests and the new life soon to follow... 

after seeing over 20 swans take flight in the river this morning, i was thinking of feathers and things aloft... things aloft and wishes... wishes and dandelion parachutes... 


floating gently away - carrying hopes and dreams with them...

here is the link to the flickr group where you can see some really terrific and imaginative work!