San Antonio is graced with beautiful old cemeteries – it’s one of the oldest cities in the Americas. I don’t have to look far for compelling faces to use as celebratory face molds for my Scent Shard sculptures. I took a trip to San Fernando Cemetery by the Missions today and came away with some beautiful press molds that are going to be ready to use after they are fired. I also took a lot of photos and could have take lots more. There were families picnicking on relatives’ graves and lots of really funny gaudy bright arrangements everywhere. Shops around San Fernando sell these. Some have cartoon characters like Bugs Bunny festooned with polyester flowers. But the sculptures and monuments are unrivaled.
The first photo shows me reaching up to take a face mold from a tall angel statue – I use only white clay to leave the stone unblemished, and the process takes just a few gentle seconds. The other two photos show monuments that I thought were particularly lovely.

It works! The little Skutt kiln that I bough on Craig’s List, brand new, has been wired, test fired and welcomed home to its own little tented firing pavillion outside my garden gate. The wiring cost half as much as the kiln itself, but the total cost was still less than half of what it would have cost from a retail clay supplier.
By the way, Clay World, which took over Hood Clay, my supplier in the 80’s, is a wonderful place for potters. I can get in as much trouble there as I can in any art store. They have beautiful carved wooden stamps, tools, books – oh. my.
The Scent Shards page is growing and expanding on my own website – check out the videos. No matter what happens, this is the most fun I’ve had in a long time. See the little kiln’s new home in these photos. There’s a shelf above the kiln with the Kiln Gods that my grandsons made to ensure a good firing, and there’s a drying rack for unfired pieces – it’s a wonderful space.

I had what stores call a “soft opening” when I posted my first Scent Shard sculptures on the ETSY gallery site this morning, and darned if one didn’t sell right off the bat. I was absolutely delighted. Two more sets sold to a friend, so I’m working away getting ready for my Etsy art showcase next Thursday. Also, Carole at La Vida Gallery wants to carry them, and lots of other people have shown interest. We’ll see how far it goes, but right now, I’m having a good time working with clay and I look forward to firing my own kiln next week. Here is a link to one of the Scent Shards on ETSY, and here is another link to a short YouTube video that I did this afternoon, totally unrehearsed but enjoyable, as I described the process of making the molds and then pressing the sculptures.
So stop and smell the shards!

I have a new project under construction – I’m working on an idea using some of the gravestone press molds that I took from cemeteries in Texas and Key West several years ago. This is one of those inspirations that sprang up almost ready-made. More about that later, but working with clay feels just like coming back to  drawing did – natural and instinctive. I’m using a Longhorn Red clay body and firing to cone 05. I even have kiln time lined up with Inspire Art Center. Stay tuned – if this works out, you’ll see another dimension of my work on Etsy, debuting on July 21 in the Art Showcase.I’m excited!!

I love this poem preface – and I added a picture of my grandson, Patrick, to remind me that what I should do is so worth doing.

This is what you shall do

“This is what you shall do…” by Walt Whitman, from the preface of Leaves of Grass. Public domain.

With more than a little fear and trepidation, I joined a Saturday morning group of artists who meet at Inspire, pool money for a model’s fee, and spend two hours in intensive life drawing. I had not done this in decades. It was an amazing experience – liberating and confirming. I can still draw! Obviously my work is rough and my proportions are sometimes badly rendered. but it was great to be “back to the drawing board.” Here’s one of my early studies of Morgan, our amazing model.
I’ll be back next month!

My friend Carol took the photo of me on the right a couple of days ago at the Garden of the Gods,  It reminded me of an old photo that was taken at Mt. Rushmore when I was five years old. I found it and scanned it and I put the two together. How can more than 60 years go by so fast? What a long, strange trip it’s been – glad it’s not over yet.

Yesterday morning as Carol and I were having breakfast on the patio at the Garden of the Gods Club, she asked me what I would remember as a defining moment about our weekend. I think it was discovering the earrings in the photo. We were in Rich Designs, an eclectic gallery which carries the artwork of Gwen Fox, whose paintings we both admire. We looked at her new work, then both spotted some wonderful chunky ethnic jewelry in a nearby display case. I fell in love with these earrings. There was a matching necklace and several other striking sets with large beads and silver findings. Then we learned that the beadwork we were so taken with was also created by Gwen Fox – she is branching out into jewelry design. What talent!
Carol bought me the earrings for my birthday – they are more than just jewelry. They symbolize our discoveries in art together, and they also absorb the colors and light of anything around them, seeming to glow from within. I will wear them often for inspiration and cherish them as a reminder of the comfort of sisterhood across the miles.