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!

where jewelry and small objects meet

mary jane dodd

mjd - 2014 offering bowl 

i've been pretty absent - i haven't felt like what i have been doing related to the blog - i mean, we have these powerhouse jewelry and component designers and makers. i had kind of wandered off down a spiritual and slightly bigger scale of working. 

mjd - 2014 sacred space

late last year i had a strong desire to make offering bowls - to use as part of sacred spaces. i am a firm believer that life is stressful and harried and we all need places to stop. to breathe. to be. whether they are religious or spiritual or not is up to you. 

at first, they had a short phrase, a mantra or something specifically requested.

mjd - 2014 offering bowls

mjd - 2015 bowl foot

they also filled my desire to make something on a scale larger than jewelry.

but that small scale used for adornment always calls - 

mjd - 2015 be still

and they got scaled down to use as the most portable offering bowls.

i was asked to use a full piece of writing in a bowl - and had gone up from my first ones in size a bit, so i set approx. 250 characters. 

mjd - 2015 live your truth

so the writing that went with 'live your truth' became this - 

mjd - 2015 offering bowl

mjd - 2015

and then the portable wearables followed -

mjd - 2015

foot

and the mats/pouches i put them in came into have matured as well.

what has been interesting is going back and seeing how things developed. i didn't foresee where i am now. and i have ideas for them being used on walls and such. 

this has been a rather new experience  - really sticking with something and working with it thoroughly. there is a lot to be said for the process. and i plan on continuing it. even though it may be boring for followers on instagram or facebook, it is rewarding. 

have you done any work that is larger than jewelry? or did you start as a different kind of maker and found yourself going to the smaller scale? 

how did you get to here?

mary jane dodd

small offering bowl - mjd 2014

first of all, i would like to wish that you all be safe. there are parts of the country where changes in weather threaten your safety and we are thinking of you. 

a friend and i were speaking the other day about things that really impacted us as we were trying to find and define our voices as makers of adornment. 

three books came out in 2008 - and they blew our minds. i remember falling asleep with one of them or another on my stomach. semiprecious salvage by stephanie lee, a charming exchange by ruth rae and kelly snelling and making connections by susan lenart kazmer. 

grungy and tattered? yes, please. providing fascinating, interesting ways of designing and solid techniques, these women inspired so many of us. 

it takes years to pick and choose techniques and materials, to find what works for you. i had many 'awkward' designs - where my inspirations didn't quite come together as harmoniously as i wished. but i learned. 

i think one of the reasons i thought back to this was staci's post on chain. these books taught us how to make chain in addition to so many other things. i think they are definitely worth a revisit. 

the gift of time and experience is that you build up an arsenal that you cannot even necessarily catalog. over the past 6 months or so, i have had a project in mind. i want to make pieces that can help a person create small sacred spaces in their home (or work or wherever). places to stop, take a breath, get centered. a place to do whatever makes you whole. 

one of the items is a small offering bowl - because i understand copper i was able to move to a slightly larger scale in my shaping. and i ended up forming a base with copper pipe and plumber's solder. something i learned years ago from these books but hadn't used in a very long time. 

are there any books or teachers that created such fireworks in your mind that you were overcome with ideas and couldn't even work because you didn't know where to start? 

let us know!