Shards of abalone......

The tail, while aready in form, has now taken shape.
Abalone shards like beautiful deep opals whisper the siren's song.....

Today was spent in the studio......

Starting new piece.....

I've started a new piece for the Duirwaigh show ....."A Walk through Wonderland".
I thought I would create the White Rabbit, using a gourd that opens up to reveal more characters from Alice in Wonderland, within. "Wonderland lies Within".

I have a vague sense of the piece so it will be fun to see how it appears.
Stay tuned..... :)

Little hands, the art of possibility and the Democratic Convention

Bella and Presley love to get their fingers into clay......

Don't you love the little chubby hands of children ?  

Contained in the shape of their fingers is the experience of innocence, trust, wonderment, softness, sweetness, discovery, and oh, yes....most of all...there is the innate energy of possibility. 

So I looked up the definition of possibility...

The power of happening, being, or existing.

Oh, I love that!  Nothing is more powerful than the possibility of being, of existing.

The power of a seed...the possibility of the tiny acorn becoming a giant oak tree. 

Within possibility lies inspiration.... hope and belief in the future.

Tonite the Democratic Convention begins....

Ahhh.....Hope!

Ahhh...Hope...
As I made more and more of the Sins, I found myself thinking more and more about Hope.
Wondering why Hope was left inside...and deciding that it must mean that Hope was always within us.
I started to think about what my little Hope piece would look like, and I decided that it would be the same little Hoonie figure...
with a kind smile...and maybe some wings.
Well....I started sculpting Hope and it just wouldn't flow like the other ones had done. The eyes wouldn't work right...I kept messing up 
what I sculpted...I got more tense and frustrated.  I kept going and finally got the beginning stages photographed and got the piece into the oven for the first bake.  And then I stopped and took a deep breath and realized that Hope wasn't just another Hoonie character with wings.  
It wasn't working for a reason....this piece was not to be another of the same characters.
No...Hope, to me, was a tiny newborn baby. That little bundle of innocence with a whole future to live out.
Hope was going to be what we all started as....innocence.
That felt just right to me, particularly because our 7th grandbaby...our 7th granddaughter is due to be born in just a days.
She is Hope to me. She is my inspiration for Hope and she will be the final sweet touch to "Pandora and the Seven Sins"
And as it worked out, without my planning for it, Hope fits perfectly into Pandora's hands. :)
I love when special things like this happens!
If you might be interested in making this piece in my class, please find more information at: http://www.thatcreativeplace.com