Brain! On! Fire!

I want to thank the entire Conyers (et all – I don’t think I even know *everyone’s* last names!) clan for letting me borrow Colette for the week — the last few days have been so fun, so enlightening, so amazing, and since I’ve had these ideas in my head for so many years without knowing how to make them real, the days have been so FREEING… I may never be able to replay Aunt Cetty for what she has given me this week. They may talk about “fire in the belly” but I have “fire in the brain”!

The first thing we did was slab rolling. We rolled a doily (thank you, Marie!) onto the doily, and draped it upside-down over a utensil holder and then shaped it and let it dry.

After it was leather (a drying term), we peeled the lace off (can be washed and reused! Not like the teardrop-shaped, lace-draped bowls I tried!). Because the lace was rolled in while it was wet, as it dries it retains the impression beautifully.

Next we did an enclosed form, that I decorated with coils, and then we cut the top off it in order to turn it into a box. The second photo above is actually from the next day, but you can see the finished box, and Cetty’s pinch pot.

Here are another couple shots from the lace bowl, both inside and outside. I can not WAIT to get this bisque fired and glazed! And make about a thousand more of them!

The next morning, I had an idea while I was in the shower, so got started on it before Cetty got there. She was thrilled that I took the initiative and even though this piece is a little bit not really what I had in mind, and in writing this now it has dried crookedly and is going to need the same kind of loving home that a three-legged dog would need, I LOVE IT. I used one of G-ma’s plates as size design for it, and definitely have other plans to do this again.

Seriously, like I said above, my brain is ON FIRE with ideas. I’m so excited, and am really looking forward to the next month which will see many of these ideas come to life.