Passion - Andrew's Word of The Week...

Andrew Thornton is hosting a weekly challenge over on his blog:

A project inspired by his word of the week.

This week: Passion...

After Cone 6 (2232 F) glaze firing.

You may be thinking that this piece is more gothic themed than passion.

The passion goes deeper - it touches on the creation and history of this piece...

Glazed but not fired.

My friend Kelly Russell (Beadfuddled) and I used to travel to bead shows a lot together.

We would spend hours driving and talking - and laughing - and talking…

Ideas were thrown about...

After Cone 6 (2232 F) glaze firing

She wanted some of her pieces made with Porcelain.

I work in porcelain… hmmm.

I made her some porcelain paper-clay. She made a bunch of pieces.

These were extras she made for me...

Glazed but not fired.

This was probably around 4 years ago that we worked on these.

For me they sat in a bisque stage, in a little bowl, waiting for me to consider glazing them.

I knew what I didn't want - which is a good place to start…

Or rather, leave off because soon after my life changed completely.

My mom got sick. I became pregnant with Chloe. My mom passed away. I became a new mom. I became pregnant with Riley. And "artistic life" has been stuck in a stage similar to treading water…

Becoming active within the blogging community with my blog(s) and through my posts on the Beads of Clay Blog for testing commercial cone 6 glazes, I have made myself become more involved and have worked through a lot of personal things that have been holding me back.

So to me these pieces represent the passion of my love for working in clay...

For collaborating with wonderful artists…

For testing and experimenting and paying attention to the details…

And for letting that passion take full hold and let me work obsessively within my art…

Kelly and I have plans to pick up on this project again very soon…

I guess you can say we are both still very passionate about it.