Women Friends, slab-built and hand sculpted clay wall sculpture by Tammy Vitale

I am going to write this quick, like a bunny, before I start thinking about it and skip it for the day.  It’s just that kind of mood.

We are anticipating snow and I need to load into Heron’s Way Gallery today so I may take out early.  I haven’t unloaded the car from Joie de Vivre so I have plenty to choose from – probably too much and I don’t know where what is, but physical therapy sent me back to bed with a heating pad yesterday and I just can’t fight that, so the prepacking did not get done.  Now the snow is pushing me out of the door faster than anticipated.  So much for well thought out plans.

I did manage to get into the studio yesterday and make another piece for my tall design using my extruder (which is a fancy name for a giant spaghetti maker, only it will make all kinds of round and square shapes, and hollow ones too).  Putting this tall piece (no name yet) together is going to be a slow process as I figure out different shapes and forms and how I can make them.  The base came out of the kiln just fine yesterday – I should use it here today but that would require taking and processing a digital picture and that might side track me long enough to not write anything.

What else came out of the kiln yesterday was an exploded vase – the one I made for raku.  It exploded on a class person’s fish and stuck all over it.  So I will have to give her some more clay and another firing on me.  It’s enough together that I’m going to go ahead and raku it but it will probably end up in the "making totems" pile.  I think the problem was where I put the sides and bottom together – too thick.  I’ll have to pay attention to that the next go round.

Woke up this morning with my next post for Create a Connection forming in my head, and stayed in bed until it blossomed.  It’s always nice when I have to be creative and it comes to me on awakening.  I always think of that as a gift and also as something someone else is looking for:  me, I’m just the conduit.  So I don’t have to stress over that one!

And that’s about it for the day, which is why I hurried up and wrote something since mostly it seems like not much.  But I have been so neglectful of this blog that I don’t want to leave more days blank.  Then I get lonesome because I feel like I’ve lost some of my connections.

thought for the day: 

For those of use who live at the shoreline

standing upon the constant edges of decision

crucial and alone…

…when the sun rises we are afraid

it might not remain

when the sun sets we are afraid

it might not rise in the morning

when our stomachs are full we are afraid

of indigestion

when our stomachs are empty we are afraid

we may never eat again

when we are loved we are afraid

love will vanish

when we are alone we are afraid

love will never return

and when we speak we are afraid

our words will not be heard

nor welcomed

but when we are silent

we are still afraid.

So it is better to speak

remembering

we were never meant to survive.   

Audre Lorde, A Litany for Survival, The Black Unicorn Poems