the graphic print

I like a geometric print now and then. This jumbo polka dot maxi skirt caught my eye recently and I’m enjoying the boldness of the print.IMG_4771

IMG_4817

IMG_4733

Paired it with a simple white blouse and stacks of bracelets. A print like this is fun to pair with another print as well… a look I appreciate more than I feel compelled to wear myself. Loving the green mirrored Ray-Ban Clubmasters with these Pearls of Joy 12mm Tahitian Studs.

IMG_4706

This is the Jeffree Star liquid lipstick in Anna Nicole I mentioned a while ago. A stunning summer orange with just the right level of red in it.

IMG_4789-2

Nails are Essie Cute as a Button with the excellent Dazzle Dry basecoat and topcoat. Highly recommend Dazzle Dry, which was recommended to me by Wet Paint Nail Spa here in Cambridge.

IMG_4754

Stay cool.

x

extra-curricular activities: pottery

“Why should one reject the perfect in favour of the imperfect? The precise and perfect carries no overtones, admits of no freedom; the perfect is static and regulated, cold and hard. We in our own human imperfection are repelled by the perfect, since everything is apparent from the start and there is no suggestion of the infinite. Beauty must have some room, must be associated with freedom. Freedom, indeed, is beauty. The love of the irregular is a sign of the basic quest for freedom.” – Soetsu Yanagi, The Unknown Craftsman

I often wonder what people are actually doing with their time. What are they really doing? What are they doing, and why? They are doing every imaginable thing, I suppose, and a number of other activities I can’t yet imagine…but I cannot help but be curious about the micro-level specifics here.

I wonder, too, what am I doing, and why?

Sometimes it seems to me I am not doing very much, and ought to do—somehow, in some way—more. I am surely right about this.

Here is something I am doing. I began, this spring, to take a course in wheelthrowing. I love it, and wish I had taken one sooner. I have every intention of becoming a competent potter, a title that is far away right now but achievable. [Any of you who have tried your hands at pottery will know how challenging it is, and how dispiriting your first attempts can be.] It is deeply satisfying to create a useful, beautiful object. I appreciate how tightly any art or craft is tied to a conversation about beauty/aesthetics, a conversation I have barely begun here but one which occupies me constantly.

Now, about three months in, I am…let’s call it enthusiastic. To approach a craft with discipline and high standards is a supremely humbling exercise. I thought I would show you a bit, pottery being my current vehicle for expression (expression being always, amidst whatever else it  may be, a matter of style) and the activity taking up most of the time not already taken up by work. Being so new I am still feeling out a style, trying out different ideas of what a plate or cup or bowl or vase might be and focusing on learning good technique. These are not exactly useful or beautiful (not useful or beautiful enough to even give away yet, for example) but they are drafts of those things.

20160517_182151

Centering, where it all begins and where it can all go horribly wrong.

20160806_170448

I am just now making my first attempts in porcelain. I like its responsiveness but I also like the warmth of dark, rough clay bodies.

IMG_4642

The glazes are another world of complication on top of the variety of clay bodies and shapes.

IMG_4645

Handles are difficult! I am otherwise pleased with this pitcher, with its squat, toddlerish proportions.

IMG_4651

I am drawn to many of the traditional Japanese glazes like this shino glaze.

IMG_4652

I also like a lot of traditional Japanese silhouettes, like the tea bowl.

IMG_4641

Lately I like to make little creamer-like pitchers. Did I mention that handles are really tricky?? I have a new, powerful appreciation for all ceramic handles everywhere.

IMG_4655

Things at this point rarely turn out how I imagine but sometimes there are nice surprises. That red part…I thought that was going to be green.

20160708_201425

Wheelthrowing involves beautiful tools and accessories.

20160724_172912

Trimming is an art in itself. My favorite stamp at the moment is this oak tree.

x