Was I There?

Ceramic Pillows

 

pillows by Djenya 

It is ironic that I am up at 6 a.m. on a gloomy, rainy morning, obsessed with ceramic pillows.  You have probably seen ceramic pillows in museums and thought, "How can anyone get a good night's sleep on that?" Or "This piece of pottery is so lovingly made and so intricately decorated it shouldn't be used for a pillow!"  

But let me tell you, even a cursory research brings up a whole wealth of information-- like how ceramic pillows are still used in some parts of the world or how ancient Chinese pillows were often decorated as a tiger, because tiger represents yin, darkness, inactivity--   things I should be embracing now.

Still.  I have been obsessed with ceramic pillows for some time now, particularly since I discovered the work of one of the most innovative artists on etsy-- stepanka-- who does wonderful inscribed wall pillows like these...

Honestly, the woman is great with porcelain.  

Another great innovator on etsy is Djenya, who makes "bookushions" which are clay pillows to use as bookends.  (See first photo in this post.)  Who would have dreamed of that?

And then there is artist Charan Sachar of Creative With Clay, who is the reason I am up so early.  I have long admired Charan's work too, but only got to reading his blog yesterday and came across a post in which he describes turning his idea for pillow clocks into the most amazing dishes.

 

I am still a bit muddled on how he does this. (Why does the clay not entirely slump down from the rim?) Nevertheless I am contemplating forming some ceramic pillows in the coming weeks, trying for my own take on them.  I think ceramic pillows interest me because the artist takes something so heavy-- clay-- and turns it into something so light.  A cloud.

 

New Cow Plates

In typical fashion, I couldn't wait until my new cow plates were fired to show them off.  Here they are.

Cows are hard to draw for me.  Kind of like owls, which are also difficult.  What's going on?  Is it the noses?  Is it the weird shaped heads?

Anyway, most of these are from photos of local cows that were peering through a fence at me one day.  I think their tags are hilarious; I know they are for marking the cows, but I got to thinking how they might be little bumper stickers of who they are.  Then I got to thinking about those snippets of language we use to describe ourselves, like "38 SWF" or "Type A."  

And then I got to thinking about texting, which I can't do... 1) because I'm not good at it and... 2) I was an English major and still feel the urge spell everything out.  I also still use capital letters and punctuation.

OMG!

Monday, Monday

Monday.  But two things are making me smile....Princess Beatrice's hat (did you see THAT?)  and the thought of chipmunks drinking cappuccinos.  

Dude, you're holding the mug the wrong way.

A Katie Morag Kind of Day

It was a Katie Morag  kind of day today.  The hills overlooking the Rogue Valley reminded me of Scotland.  Dark blue glowering rainclouds but the dazzling green of spring.  

I call today a "Katie Morag" day because it reminds me of the excellent books by Mairi Hedderwick that my Scottish pal has been sending the children.  They love the stories-- even the poems (!)-- but I think I am the one who truly wants to be little red-haired Katie, living in her quaint village on an island off the coast of Scotland.

Watching the rainclouds and the rainbows afterward.

Ducky Race

Here are the duckies in the stall of the bathroom tub caddy.  It was the day they had waited for all year-- Theo's birthday--for they knew they would be put through their paces on the irrigation ditch above Liberty Street here in Ashland.

Here is the invitation.

Crown was the favored winner from last year.

But, in a surprising turn, it was the listing Cowboy who won!  And then Cap in the second race!  (That mild mannered guy-- you think he's Ritchie Cunningham but he's really Eddie Haskel.)