Saturday, February 6, 2016

Green Needles and Scales

When I look across our West Virginia hills during these leafless wintry days, it is the conifers that alleviate the monotony of brown and black. Scattered among their deciduous brethren, the hemlocks, pines, cedars, and spruce stand in striking contrast against the snow—or with some of it caught in their branches. Conifers may symbolize the holidays in December, but they are far more the rest of the year. Their density provides protective habitat for birds, while furry creatures live below—or build nests among the branches. Their needles and scales (many arborvitae/cedars don’t have needles) add texture to my pots, and their cones embrace the seeds that keep new trees coming. Conifers don’t grow everywhere. I returned to North America only once during the four years we lived in Hawaii. The first thing I did on the University of Utah campus was spontaneously hug a small fir tree just standing there waiting to be appreciated. Yes, it was a somewhat prickly encounter, but if you grew up in the north woods, palm trees and Norfolk Island “pines” aren’t everything! 




My most recent mobiles (aka windchimes) feature conifers in all their textured greens, sometimes with forest animals, sometimes alone. I’ve started embellishing the backs of my figutes so that they can be glazed in the indentations. Some conifer cut-outs have snowflakes on their backs, others have conifer sprigs. Of course, every mobile involves beads too—a lot of them. How did I get into these? I especially love making larger pots, but when you load those into the kiln, there is wasted space between them. They can’t touch each other or the glaze with melt together. Any number of small things can inhabit that unused space between the pots. Over the years, trinkets evolved into windchimes or mobiles. Originally tested on neighbors, I learned to drill the Chesapeake Bay driftwood that my friend Suzie collects for me, to string beads and figures together, to epoxy knots so the wind does not untie them, and to encourage people to hang them in relatively protected places—but, if you like windchimes, where you can hear them.

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