Thursday, February 21, 2008

A simple vase...

A while back I carefully formed this vase out of my clay.

I stamped textures into it and the letters H-O-P-E.

I painted it with bright colors and filled the textured surface with a black wash.

The vase went into the kiln for the first firing...and, unfortunately blew up. There were pieces of the clay all over my kiln.

This can be caused by an air bubble in the clay....or, too much moisture caught inside the piece possibly from inadequate drying time.

Instead of throwing it away, something made me piece it back together and fire it again with a coating of clear glaze. I wasn't willing to give up on it. I knew that I wouldn't be selling it, but instead decided to keep this imperfect piece for myself. If you look at the picture carefully, you can actually see the jagged lines of the pieces that were put back together.

It caught my eye the other day as I recalled the journey that this vase had been on. The fact that it spelled out "HOPE" became very meaningful to me at this time.

While my dad has so many things going against his making a complete recovery at this time, we all continue to have hope. He has amazed us all with his tenacity before...leading us to believe that he will slowly recover. Even though he is still in intensive care with tubes and wires connected to his body...he still remains a fighter.

Just like the vase where each piece was carefully and lovingly placed back into its right position to make it whole again...my dad needs to slowly and carefully heal one part of his body at a time so that he can function again on his own.

I keep looking at the stamped letters that form the word "hope". These letters stayed intact during the firing explosion....and continue to give me the encouragement that I so desperately need right now.

Hang in there, Dad...we are still filled with hope....

2 comments:

Beverly said...

Grammie, what a lovely post. It is wonderful when we can pick up the broken pieces and put them back together again and have hope. You write and express yourself so well.

I'm here with Ella. What fun she is.

Anonymous said...

I like this story of your vase. And all my life I've wanted to try making pottery. Lucky you.
Stella