Bloggers Anonymous

If you ever want to express yourself with complete impugnity, start a blog.

I've discovered I can say anything I want, not because my vocabulary is unlimited, not because there is a vast world of potential topics, not even because of my unalienable rights as an  American citizen.

I can say anything I want because no one who knows me ever reads my blog. Ever. For instance, i could say, hey, maybe its a good thing I live too far away to babysit my little loved ones since they are percolating incubators of bacteria who seem to catch every vile malady that passes by. Or maybe, just for instance, I could marvel at the fact that my son has developed huge freakish thumbs from texting his friends incessantly, yet he has not a second available to actually answer a text from me. And there is nothing preventing me from mentioning that no one from my family has ever thrown old Pandora so much as a Like on facebook even though I've been posting pictures of my polyclay projects daily for four years straight - pictures that people in Madrid and Belfast and Queensland and Manhattan and Sri Lanka seem pretty enthusistic about. In fact, I think I'll go right ahead and say ALL that stuff! You know why? Cause they'll never read it. Sweet!

The "Scayne" Craze

So all you clayers, come clean with old Pandora.. Don't you ever ask yourself, "what will I do with all this cane?"

Its the making of the cane that makes us delirious with joy, right?  So sometimes its kind of a let- down when we have to figure out what to actually make.
Well, fret no more my darlings, "SCAYNING" is here!
Scayning is sculpting + caning.  All canes work for this technique. And you can imagine how fun it is to cut nice hearty slices of millefiore cane and then bend'em and form'em and create crazy martian greenhouses bulging with striped flying jellyfish and...oh, sorry.
Anyhooooo...check out my facebook page if you want to get your scayne on. Look in the mobile uploads. Facebook/busybusypandora.

What a Difference a Clay Makes

I had a friend over for a Clay- Date today. It was not only fun but eye-opening. I was helping her with a "scayning" (sculpture plus caning) project so we were using her cane, not mine.  Right away I noticed the slices lacked flexibility. When I tried to bend the flowers and form the flat leaf shapes into curved foliage the clay broke off at the pinch points and/or cracked. I knew the clay had been thoroughly conditioned already because it was Skinner blended.  So why was I spending more time repairing than creating? Then it hit me.

She had not used PREMO Clay.

I've been sold on Polyform products for years; but it wasn't until today that I realized I could not create the pieces I want to make without my Premo clay.

Who knew what a difference a clay makes?!

Clay-Goggles

Like that famous guy with the beard and the sandals, the life of Pandora is delineated by letters: B.C. and A.D.
(Yes, I acknowledge and accept the inherent blasphemy.)

Before Clay I saw the world as it was.
After Discovery nothing ever looked the same again.

Through my clay-goggles, flowers appear in triangular segments of shape and color, the petals stretched or compressed, the centers dipping primly inward and or pushing up and outward in lusty pride. 

Clouds break up into every shade of pink and violet and blue, the colors assymetrical,  huddled close like sheep.  Wrapped in comfy neutrals and then torn and wrapped again.

The picture shown here makes me want to blend clay by the hour, watching it flow and morph and become luminous, playful, conducive.

I look and look at our astonishing world. I look until my eyes are tired. Then I fall asleep in my goggles and I dream about things I' ve never seen.  And I can't wait to wake up and open a new block of clay.