Everyday Crafty Goodness

When I first started living on my own, I was plantless…that was also a very dark period of my life.  But then a friend gave me a baby spider plant and I was hooked.  I started collecting plants and cuttings and soon my apartment looked like a jungle…well maybe more like a science lab because I had dozens of little water-filled glass jars with various cuttings rooting in them displayed on shelves.  It felt good to have living things in my life.

I still have a lot of plants now but lately I have a renewed interest in succulents.  I like their sculptural quality and you just can’t help but want to pinch those little fat leaves.  I’m trying hard not to go hog wild and buy more succulents but I may cave soon.  They’re just so irresistible.

Little succulent-inspired thingies made of porcelain.   These are for my class project (Out of Many … One) which will be on exhibit at the Fuller Craft Museum starting in March (eeek!).  I need to make a lot more and find glass containers to house them (like terrariums).

I’ve been doing more handbuilding the past couple of years and I like it.  It’s less messy than throwing on the wheel. 

I was at the Salvation Army this weekend and there was a sweater sale, 2 sweaters for $1!!  I got six 100% wool sweaters for only 3 bucks!  The plan is to make felt out of them but out of the six, five were already shrunken by the previous owners. 

These will probably become pillows.

I was supposed to go to the studio last night after work but I fell asleep.  So instead of working on my class project, I worked on some micro terrariums.  I’ve made terrariums with ferns in the past but I’ve been inspired by these cactus terrariums (and these) that I just had to make some of my own.  I repotted some of my succulents from my dish gardens and put them in the smallest glass containers I have…the one on the left is actually a glass Christmas ornament!  It’s less than 2 inches across.  I also stuck some pebbles I’ve collected in them for fun.

Looking and playing with these terrariums gave me a new idea for my class project (I’ve already changed my mind several times and haven’t even started on anything yet!)…so Shawn, if you’re reading this (which you will, because I’m going to email you the link shortly), I’m not doing the Urban Fossils anymore, I’ll be doing Mikrokosmos instead.  The idea is to make little plant-like clay things and put them in glass containers…each will be a little self-contained world of its own.  This will still be a wall piece (the containers will sit on shelves…which I’ll probably have to make) and I think I might try glazing everything white…that’s something I’ve been slowly moving towards in the past year. 

I’ll try not to sleep thru next week’s class!