The Goodbye

A Parting Prayer

Dear Lord, please open your gates
and call St. Francis
to come escort this beloved companion
across the Rainbow Bridge.

Assign him to a place of honor,
for he has been a faithful servant
and has always done his best to please me.

Bless the hands that send him to you,
for they are doing so in love and compassion,
freeing him from pain and suffering.

Grant me the strength not to dwell on my loss.
Help me remember the details of his life
with the love he has shown me.
And grant me the courage to honor him
by sharing those memories with others.

Let him remember me as well
and let him know that I will always love him.
And when it's my time to pass over into your paradise,
please allow him to accompany those
who will bring me home.

Thank you, Lord,
for the gift of his companionship
and for the time we've had together.

And thank you, Lord,
for granting me the strength
to give him to you now.

Amen.

- © Brandy Duckworth, 1998

On Loss And Neutral

I forget that all people don't realize how fragile raku pottery can be...and so this beautiful angel is no more.
It's a pity...I was rather pleased with her.

Which reminds me....

Dear Jenny,
Never be too pleased, or too proud or too happy.
It will go away and then you will feel a loss.  Try to always stay neutral....
...think beige.
Love,
The Universe

Neutral is not my nature but I must say, I am exhausted from the losses.....so I think I will try to give neutral a little more energy.

Beige can be quite nice with a splash of turquoise!
...or perhaps turquoise is much more interesting against a beige background....

New Mug Ideas

 I've been working on finding a favorite mug shape and then adding something you don't see every day...like sgraffito!
These still aren't finished.....they'll get glaze on the insides and the little one will have glaze on the bottom.  I've made several more of both shapes and still another shape that is sort of a taller version of the short one...sort of.
 I think they'll all have a different design on them...but still go together.

I still don't have a favorite though.

                  I really like the bottoms!

Summer Break

I've had a nice three weeks off from school....most of it I spent in beautiful Atlanta.


I did go to an incredible raku workshop with Charlie Riggs (raku artist extraordinaire) in SC where I made these...naked two step raku wall buttons....I have great plans for this process!


....and these...ferric chloride wall buttons.....this was a seriously fun and somewhat dangerous process....but, my mom has a respirator (for dying things with lye....'cause that's just what 80 year old women do) so I'll be using that and making very cool things.







I also got in some raku with my friend in Winder and finished these icon boxes!

...and then I drove back up to NC...where two turkeys were standing outside my front door. Apparently they spent the past three weeks admiring their reflections in the door because they made me a turkey poop door mat....lucky me!

Funky Salt Fired Syrup Pitcher

Remember this odd pitcher I made a while back?




Well.....check it out after it came out of the salt kiln...rather unusual, quite orange and somewhat funky...although still retaining it's original oddness!

(I think pancakes might be in order.)

Saint Giles Icon

Saint Giles is the patron saint of protection from night terrors and fear of the dark.
When this icon is finished the crescent moon part of his face will be a shiny metallic gold or silver (depending on the weather and any number of other things) and there will be a sprinkle of metallic dots ...like the milkyway...in the background. I think I'll use a glaze that looks sort of like an oil spill for the outside of the box...hopefully, it will turn out all sparkly, dreamy-peaceful like!

I think these make a really cool and unique baby gift to hang in the nursery.

Pretty Little Wine Cups...Finished!

 Remember these?


Well, I fired two of them in the ancient, sort of held together with chains, salt kiln.....

...and they came out like this!

...so, I tried a few more glaze ideas and started the old kiln up again today.
I should be able to open it Wednesday......can't wait, can't wait!