A Necessary Detour

It's been an incredibly busy first few weeks of summer  on the farm. We're building a small addition onto our cottage and that has consumed most of our free time. Lot's of racket from power tools, debris, and hustle going on around here.  And it's been raining much of the time.  Let your imagination go with that one. 

I know this may seem odd, but when things get a little hectic, I find that one of the ways I cope is to bust out some purely fun creative time.  If I'm painting or making hypertufa pots, worries about whether or not we  made the right decision on the roof pitch or window placement are assuaged. I easily get hung up on stuff like that, enough so that I often impede progress. A little creative detour and I'm ready to scale the bigger stuff. But right now....

This is what came of my quest for balance.

Do you have a stash of rugged materials waiting to be transformed into something wonderful? Stuff to make, well, stuff with? A shingle, rusty plumbers tape, an old hinge and a little paint. I've been wanting to do this for a while, I guess a little stress pays off from time to time.

And I've always dreamed of owning a kiln and a potter's wheel since the first day I sunk my hands into a slab of cool damp clay in highschool pottery class. Unfortunately a pottery studio hasn't materialized in my life. But hypetufa is a great substitution for the frugally minded ceramic artist wanna be. You might remember my casting leaves with hypertufa in an earlier post. Here, I used a thrifted platter as a mold for this piece.  I used hot glue to draw a face on the bottom of the platter before casting. 


Soon, we'll be deciding flooring, lighting, etc in the next few weeks. And as I much as I love the process, there will be for certain, a few necessary detours along the way.


Oh, but detours are often where one finds inspiration. Here's a bit of what inspired me along the way:

• Cozy Homemaking- Part scientist, part artist, full awesome! I would love, LOVE to have indigo dyed arms up to my elbows with Sonia, in France!! I can dream can't I?
• The Garden Betty- The self professing diary of a Dirty Girl. Linda mountain climbs, surfs and grows super whamma jamma tomatoes! Naturally.
• Orangette- Molly is  a writer and owner with her husband of a restaurant called Delancey, but its her words, and sincere love of home cooking that keeps me coming back for more. 

*~Whatever you are doing, or wherever you are going, may it be a summertime to remember.~*