From the Ashes... Update.

I’ve been working on my ceramic pieces for the Art from the Ashes exhibition in June 2010. It’s going to be a fabulous event to help raise money for the Duekmejian Wilderness Park in Glendale Ca. This park was sacrificed during the Station Fire to save the homes near the foothills. I have gone to the area to find burnt treasures to create from. I’m drawing on the idea of renewal with this box. I’ve taken paper clay and created a large form for a small shadow box. OK, The paper clay got amazingly moldy while I was letting it get leather hard.

I craved a leaf pattern into the clay. I usually get real leaves and use them as a guide. I went big with this box to get the feel of standing beneath a tree.And let dry for days, really weeks. It’s very important that the clay dries slowly and evenly. It’s so easy for the clay to crack while it’s shrinking in the drying process. (I’ve lost two boxes in a different clay body. One in the drying, the other in the bisque firing.)

This leaf box has survived the making, drying, bisque firing and glaze firing to be a thing of beauty. I glazed it with a traditional Celadon glaze. I have to admit that the glaze turned rusty brown where thin. Much like a tree at the beginning of the fall.

One of the treasure I found in the park is a branch that survived the fire, but the tree it was from did not. I’ve cut the wood so that the inside and the chard out side are visible and added then to the small box.

The permeant leaf box around the chard wood, speaking of both what was and what will be again, cause the land is fertile and the will of the seed is strong.

I've got one more shadow box done and one more drying. Cross your fingers...