Slump Busting

Let them eat cake...

It's very easy after a successful Open Studios, to let your brain twist you into a tired slump. In November, I had the feeling that I was heading towards no man's land in my clay studio. I didn't feel like working. I felt awkward about what I had been making to sell.

Luckily, I was able to make some work for a show that happens around the end of December. It helped me to keep my hands in the wet clay, and to keep on making. Another show, this time sculptural, had a fast approaching deadline. I told myself that I was going to enter. So, I started working on pieces during Christmas vacation in December. And, now I'm just going to squeak in with my application at the deadline. 

Cake wedges were an object that I practiced making several years ago. I made about seven or eight of them, repeatedly trying out the complicated hollow form. Now, with that experience under my belt, it seemed like a good time to revisit the form. But, to apply a narrative structure. So, I started making some cakes that tell stories. So far, I've made a Marie Antoinette cake and a Miss Havisham cake. I am definitely interested in making others.

Miss Havisham lived in a decaying world of her own...

I was also able to make some wall pieces to enter into the sculpture show. These required a great deal of work and some careful firing. I'm so grateful that they turned out.

Faith wall hearts...

I've been reading this book, in order to tap into my creativity. It has some delightful projects inside. Hoping to make some connections between the ideas that percolate when reading this, and clay.

Genius...

Yes...