Boris is all ready for Easter but he is not too particular about his holidays. If Easter eggs were not available, I know he would heartily sink his little fangs into some Gefilte fish. Boris practices Omnism. All cats do. Especially when it comes to food.
Boris wishes you a happy happy Spring no matter how you celebrate it. Here’s hoping you find a nice surprise in your litter box!
Sometimes children get crazy notions into their heads. I had a friend who swore that there was a city called ”Random” in upstate New York where contest winners were picked. (“Winners will be selected at random.”)
My personal crazy childhood belief was that every song had already been written, and that it was impossible to compose a totally new song. I know now that this isn’t the case, but I could not imagine that anyone could invent any new music beyond that which already existed. It had all been done.
But I also know that there were times in popular music history (for one example), when all music started sounding the same until a visionary or a visionary movement came along and blew up the paradigm. Until someone shakes things up, we get mired in the same old same old. It takes a a new way seeing and hearing to move upforward. And openness and a willingness to explore. If you want a concrete example of this has happened in the past, watch the segments on David Bowie in Apple TV’s documentary 1971: The Year That Changed Everything.
It can seem impossible to come up with a fresh design that works on all levels. We have all been subjected to brutally over-designed fashion masquerading as something new. As for me, I have been struggling the past few weeks with trying to come up with some new earring designs that are unhackneyed, original, and my own.
Where are you supposed to get inspiration? Everyone recommends searching Pinterest, but I have a problem with that. I don’t think it will help my cause to look at countless pictures of earrings. Sure, I can copy someone else’s designs. But without getting into the moral/ethical dilemma copying debate, (a topic that I think has been done to death and needs to be put to rest, ) after I have learned a technique, why on earth would I want copy someone else’s work? I want to be more than a technician. That’s the goal. So the question becomes where to find inspiration.
Picasso is known for saying that good artists copy and that great artists steal. What does this mean? Does it mean that great artists commit copyright infringement? I don’t think so. Let me explain. Two artists who ”stole” to great effect were Antonio Gaudi and Elsa Peretti. How did they do it? Here’s a clue: Polymer artist Kathleen Dustin says that part of her job as an artist is to pay attention.
Gaudi and Peretti paid attention. Here are two videos that show how they did it.
How many of us truly pay attention? I am going to start working on it.
I must confess that I am feeling particularly uninspired as of late. I’ve been making ceramic mugs in the pottery studio and decorating them with underglaze, but even this seems forced.
The Penn Archeology and Anthropology Museum has been a great source of inspiration for me in the past. Flea Markets are a great source of inspiration, too. If those don’t work for you, the Huffington Post offers a few suggestions to stoke your creativity. I find that the best thing for me is to take a long walk and to try to look at things differently.
So last week, I revisited a Philadelphia neighborhood I lived in years ago which happened to be hosting a vintage flea market on a beautiful fall day. Even if the walk didn’t open the inspiration floodgates, I figured that at least I would get some exercise since I walked to Powelton Village and back from my South Philadelphia neighborhood. And got to look at Center City Philadelphia architecture from the west rather than my usual eastern view. Architecture can be another source of inspiration.
I’m not feeling inspired yet, but when I do, you’ll be the first to know.
I did something different today. I wrote a letter. A real letter, not a card. With a pen. In cursive. On notepaper. And I addressed it. And put a stamp on it. There’s a mail box on the corner across from my house. I fought my fear that there were corona virus germs on the mail box handle. I pulled the handle down, and dropped the letter through the slot. And then I looked across the street toward St. Paul’s church and saw this.
Actually, St. Peter is the one in the picture. How do I know? Peter’s the one with the keys to the pearly gates and I think the big book he’s holding is where all your transgressions are recorded. You die, you go to the pearly gates of heaven,and St. Peter meets you like a bouncer at an exclusive night club and decides whether you get in.
How do I know all this? Twelve years of Catholic school. That and the fact that I had a mother who had a hard time allowing herself to relax, and enjoy something like a nice outfit or a yummy dessert without feeling guilty. And when I got older, I would ask her, “Why tease yourself? It’s not like there’s a prize for the person who suffers the most. It’s not like St. Peter’s gonna meet you at the pearly gates with a ******* Kewpie doll.”
St. Paul is down at the end of the block out of camera range, and he is wearing a mask too. And he’s holding a sword to smack the heads of passers by who might not be wearing a mask or observing proper social distancing. Which is why I did not go down there to take his picture. Because even though I was wearing a mask, I knew he was down there waiting to see if I would screw up. Twelve years of Catholic school will do that. I’m scarred for life.
Try something different and see what happens. It just might spark your creativity.
Stay safe and well.
I’m back from Clayathon with too much to do today so this week’s post will be short. What inspires you? I am not ashamed to say that my cat Boris (and animals in general) is a big source of inspiration for my pottery.
I’ve started throwing again after a hiatus because of thumb problems. And I like to draw on the pottery which is white earthenware clay. Here are some small bowls that came out of the kiln this week.
We have sponge eating monsters in our pottery studio, so I marked my cleanup sponge accordingly:
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My head is exploding this week. I have been working with bronze metal clay and making bigger pieces and hollow forms. 
I am going to have to rethink my firing methods and schedules. The folks on the Metal Clay Now Facebook group have given me lots of great advice. Stay tuned on this one.
I went to Baltimore last week to play with friends and to go to a sale at Maja, one of the most incredible bead stores I have ever encountered. I treated myself to an incredible sterling bead decorated with dragonflies. (When I manage to take a decent photo, I will post it. ) The next day, we went to the stores in the Village of Cross Keys and I saw the most incredible fiber jewelry in The Store LTD, the very same store that Betty Cooke owns and from which she sells her marvelous modernist jewelry.
I was so inspired that when I came home, I got out the fabric stash and began dyeing and cutting silk that I’ve recycled from thrift shop finds I bought on a former fabric frenzy.
Then I got out the drop spindle and started to make knittable fiber (could I even call it yarn?) from strips of fabric sewn together.
My aim is to ply this fiber with ribbon or cord and make something from it. Stay tuned on this one too.
I was going to write a post a few months ago about a wonderful visit I made in July 2019 to the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology. But one thing led to another as it usually does. The Penn Museum post went into the drafts folder and I went on to other things. I recently returned from Southern Spain(Seville and Granada)where I was overloaded with Spanish Baroque interiors. They are beautiful, but after awhile, you feel like you’ve eaten too much birthday cake. (At least I did).
“Where do you get your inspiration?” is a question I sometimes hear. And while I will not be making a Spanish Baroque wedding cake any time soon, I find inspiration pretty much everywhere. Which brings me back to the Penn Museum. There is certainly enough to inspire anyone who spends an afternoon (or better, the whole day) there.
The Mesopotamian jewelry collection is outstanding. Here are some pictures, but it’s better to see the collection in person. 
The Near Eastern pottery collection is also very interesting. These pots are from Iran.
I was so taken with the pot shaped like an Erlenmeyer flask that I decided to make my own version using the tar paper technique, Here’s where memory and inspiration clash: I remembered the shape upside down.
There’s a picture of the finished version in this post. The pot was auctioned off at Clayathon and went home with a (I hope) happy person.
But I think I love the Mexico and Central American collection best because it contains some striking Mayan artifacts as well as jewelry and pottery.
I love that turtle (I think) vessel and could see myself trying a colorful terra cotta version.
Where do you get your inspiration?
I don’t know if you expected a post on teenage pregnancy but that’s not what I mean by fooling around. I mean playing. I’ve always liked to play and to try new things. My wild imagination has confused and alarmed most of the adults that I’ve met since the age of 12. Those who can roll with it and play along usually become friends.
Creativity is currently a sexy topic Internet topic, (maybe not as popular as pictures of cats) and people are exhorted to play with color, try strange and exotic spices and have experiences rather than collect consumer durables.
A website called, Creative Something.Net says
“Play is more than just important for creativity, it’s often necessary. Without a play-like attitude, creative insights hide from us behind fear and uncertainty. When we don’t embark on activities that involve play, being creative becomes a challenge.”
Remember, creativity brings something valuable to most things in life (OK, so maybe not accounting.)
I ‘ve been playing in my workshop lately. I haven’t come up with anything new yet, but I’m having fun and trying new things. Here are some pictures.
Fooling around with bronze wire which I squared in the rolling mill. How would it look if I soldered the rings together and bent them into a cuff bracelet?
Fooling around with shapes to see what would make an interesting cuff bracelet
What can I do with a fork?
What can I do with rings I never finished and jump rings? The medallions on the right are Hadar’s white bronze clay which is not a favorite of mine because it is fragile. Still, I like the medallions. They remind me of old miraculous medals.
Here is some more white bronze clay I fooled around with. I think the dangles look a little like sea urchins. I wrapped the ones on the left as if they were briolettes. I think I like that better than the ones on the right with the jump rings. I like the way the clay turned color and I decided to leave them like tha.
I am trying the rings and medals as embellishments for polymer bangle bracelets. I also used some pre-made gear charms.
I am also fooling around with bronze metal clay. The picture on the right shows torch-fired Prometheus Clay on the left and kiln-fired BRONZclay on the right.
Next: I’m going to try to make my own gear embellishments using Five Star metal bronze clay. Something good is bound to emerge. I hope. That’s usually what happens when I fool around long enough.
Spring is when the outdoor flea markets spring up in Philadelphia. My favorite Saturday activity is to take long walks through the neighborhoods and hit house sales, sidewalk sales, and flea markets on my way. I usually look for household items I might need at sidewalk sales. Estate sales are especially interesting because they are usually held in affluent neighborhoods and you get to see some pretty impressive homes from the inside as well as antiques and art. You also learn that money does not always equal taste, but we knew that already, didn’t we?
Flea markets are fun because the sellers are generally pretty friendly in my experience and some are eager to talk about their wares even if you don’t buy. They’re a place to learn, meet people, and relax.
John S. Whitney, Jr. has a clever way of attracting buyers to his table filled with antique art and jewelry. He also sells from his store, the Nue Gallery, in Lansdown, PA.
While I don’t collect antiques or vintage items, and rarely buy jewelry, I find plenty of inspiration at flea markets. You will find plenty of shapes and color at flea markets, in the form of old pottery vintage clothing, brightly colored cloth, old appliances, or just plain rusty stuff. I have found some great old tools at flea markets, but I also look for things I can incorporate into my art, like old jewelry, metal objects I can cut up and repurpose, ephemera, or anything that I can fit into a bezel.
Here are some pictures from my last flea market foray
And here’s what I bought: two cheap copper cuff bracelets and two cheap brass ones. Total, $5.00. I plan to reuse the metal to make something new. I also found a vendor selling cabochons and treated myself to some lovely striped jasper for another $10.00.
I made a Picasso vase. Or rather, the other people in the studio started calling the vase The Picasso Vase before I ever thought of it. Probably because of the shape which would have been impossible to achieve without the tar paper technique (which I also used to make the menorah.)
You can from the picture above see how difficult it would have been to support the vase in its wet state without the tar paper to support it. It was three wet slabs with beveled edges, scored and pinched together.
Paper covered vase on left (upside down). Bone dry vase before bisque firing on the right.
If the vase was to be an homage to Picasso, I needed to decorate it with Picasso-style images. I decided on a cat, a mouse, and a fish. Here are some preliminary sketches I made for the mouse. I started with realistic drawings and got more abstract as I went.
I had no problem deciding on the cat portion and the fish came to me all at once.
Here are the designs for the mouse and fish, drawn on the bisque-fired vase with an underglaze pencil.
The cat in progress. I used underglaze chalks and liquid underglazes for color.
Right out of the kiln.
The finished vase.
Ornamento 