Sunday, May 30, 2021

My Annual Attempt at Bleeding Hearts

 Every year in May, when the bleeding hearts bloom, I set myself the challenge of replicating them in slip. They seem like naturals, with their precise rows of heart-shaped blooms, but like everything clay-related, it's harder than it looks! Here's my clumsy attempt from 2017:



Not terrible, and the foliage is actually pretty good, but it does have a little bit of that baby-drawings quality. 

This year I tried it a few times on the flat table surface before moving on to three dimensional forms. As often happens, I got better with practice! In particular I was pleased with the last one. 



Buoyed by this success, I felt ready to try it on a mug form. Not as great! Ah well, if it were easy it would hardly be worth your time to read about. Anyway it's not terrible, just, you know. Needs practice. 

In other news, it's 48° & pouring out, not a great day to work in the summer studio. We really need the rain but I imagine a lot of people are disappointed it happened this weekend. My wheel is in the summer studio, so I recycled clay today & started on some handbuilt work I need for a group show at Monkitree this summer. 
Pottery stairs are out, for local peeps who want to brave the rain! 









2 comments:

smartcat said...

We are socked in too. The pool temp was (note the past tense) 74º. We had looked forward to first swims. HAH! In the 40º's with more rain on the way. As your said, we can always use the rain, but it would have been nice for it to have held off.

This reminds me of the last time I was at Haystack (twenty years ago) when it was so cold they were having frost a few miles inland.

However, we live in New England so it is all subject to rapid change.

Lori Watts said...

Another chilly one today! I've read it's meant to be warm & sunny....tomorrow. After everyone goes back to work.