Springtime is here in western Massachusetts. The buds on the trees are just beginning to open. The sprouts on the ground are coming up, soon the fiddleheads will be ready for harvesting along the river.

This spring has a darkness over it though… with the global pandemic, covid19. Such a difficult time for everyone around the world. It is a time of pause, a time of introspection. Everything is on hold. Still, spring comes. New life continues.

This new urn that I have made hopefully captures the color of the new spring leaves, sprouts and petals. The patterns reminding us of the order of things in nature, continuing even amidst our human chaos. This order of the natural world has been captured for eons, by artists, musicians and mathematicians. The patterns I have made on this urn are nothing new - just a continuation of some of my favorite influences from ancient Islamic tiles to early American quilts.

The method I use to create this pattern begins with a grid drawing, in pencil on the bone dry (greenware) urn. Many, many hours go into creating this urn… after it is made at the potters wheel it is then trimmed and carved to create the footed base. The petal-like pattern is painted on the dry clay with a resist. The clay is then rubbed away with a wet sponge, leaving the resist pattern raised above the rest of the surface. It is then fired twice to attain the final outcome.

Even though this pattern takes so long to create, it is well worth it in the end. For me, it is time spent bringing some order to this unprecedented time in our world right now.

Available on my shop page Here.