My boot is dried and in the kiln room, ready to get bisque fired so I can glaze it. We've been talking about our next assignment in class and I'll confess, I worked ahead (you're shocked, right??). I worry I'm giving poor Professor H. a migraine, but he's very nice about it.
So, our next assignment is a house. He wanted something with detail. I thought about making the cottage, but there's no color variations and it's all rough cut hemlock, so it wasn't a big stretch material wise. Our house here is just a cape cod, again, nothing overly interesting. (Just so my house and cottage don't feel bad, I love them both...I'm a simple girl at heart and they suit me.) So I thought about doing a ruin of a castle from a hundred year old book I have here...I've always loved the look of it. I still think that might be fun someday but I never lived there or had a connection to it. Of all the houses I've lived in, I'll confess, I've always felt most at home in books. I read The Hobbit for the first time in third grade...and part of me has lived there ever since. (Fingers crossed the kids aren't reading this...they'd be rolling their eyes.) Soooooo, that's what I'm thinking about.
I took Professor H. This sketch...
If you can't tell from the model or sketch (and there's a very good chance you can't LOL), that's a Hobbit Hole (with a traditional house addition) that's setting on an open book.
Now, here's the thing, I'm very new to ceramics and I'm not sure I have the technical proficiency to pull this off. Frankly, it might end up looking more like Dorothy's house after it lands in Oz. But I love the idea and lack of proficiency doesn't mean I won't try it—whether it works, or not. I could go for something simpler. Something that might turn out more like what I envision, but I wouldn't bring any passion to the project and if I'm sure I can do it, then odds are I won't be stretching and growing in my work. I'd be phoning it in. And this book, The Hobbit raised me. Tolkien and so many other authors through their books raised me. This project would have meaning for me...even if I flop.
I'm hoping, when I'm done, to paint this on the page...
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.”
This project really does relate to writing, but to the rest of life as well. There are always easy paths to take. They're smooth and others have taken them ahead of you so you can follow in their footsteps. You can pretty much coast down those paths and enjoy the billboards that dot the landscape as you go along.
But sometimes, if you take a turn onto a more unexpected path—a less traveled path—you might find something that takes your breath away. You might find you learn something totally unexpected. That's what I'm hoping this project will be...something unexpected. It might indeed be an unexpected journey. And even if it's flawed and my inexperience shows, I hope my love of this book shows as well.
Speaking of books (oh, yeah that was subtle LOL), my entire Words of the Heart series is on sale this month for Kindle. The idea of what makes a home plays to some extent in all three books, but there's a quote in Hold Her Heart that really says what I'm saying about my home being in books...
“You can only have one home,” I said without looking up.
Dad’s laughter made me...look at him as he said, “Honey, that’s like saying you can only love one person. You can have many homes. Wherever someone you love is, that’s home.”
It's like that with books. When you find one you truly love, you've found a new home!
Thank you everyone who's started following my blog and my "novel" freshman experience!
Holly
PS. Did you notice this Hobbity post was my thirteenth post in this series? And if you remember that first dinner, you'll realize why that gave me untold geeky glee!So, our next assignment is a house. He wanted something with detail. I thought about making the cottage, but there's no color variations and it's all rough cut hemlock, so it wasn't a big stretch material wise. Our house here is just a cape cod, again, nothing overly interesting. (Just so my house and cottage don't feel bad, I love them both...I'm a simple girl at heart and they suit me.) So I thought about doing a ruin of a castle from a hundred year old book I have here...I've always loved the look of it. I still think that might be fun someday but I never lived there or had a connection to it. Of all the houses I've lived in, I'll confess, I've always felt most at home in books. I read The Hobbit for the first time in third grade...and part of me has lived there ever since. (Fingers crossed the kids aren't reading this...they'd be rolling their eyes.) Soooooo, that's what I'm thinking about.
I took Professor H. This sketch...
And when he said he thought it could work and made some suggestions, I took up this model...
If you can't tell from the model or sketch (and there's a very good chance you can't LOL), that's a Hobbit Hole (with a traditional house addition) that's setting on an open book.
Now, here's the thing, I'm very new to ceramics and I'm not sure I have the technical proficiency to pull this off. Frankly, it might end up looking more like Dorothy's house after it lands in Oz. But I love the idea and lack of proficiency doesn't mean I won't try it—whether it works, or not. I could go for something simpler. Something that might turn out more like what I envision, but I wouldn't bring any passion to the project and if I'm sure I can do it, then odds are I won't be stretching and growing in my work. I'd be phoning it in. And this book, The Hobbit raised me. Tolkien and so many other authors through their books raised me. This project would have meaning for me...even if I flop.
I'm hoping, when I'm done, to paint this on the page...
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.”
This project really does relate to writing, but to the rest of life as well. There are always easy paths to take. They're smooth and others have taken them ahead of you so you can follow in their footsteps. You can pretty much coast down those paths and enjoy the billboards that dot the landscape as you go along.
But sometimes, if you take a turn onto a more unexpected path—a less traveled path—you might find something that takes your breath away. You might find you learn something totally unexpected. That's what I'm hoping this project will be...something unexpected. It might indeed be an unexpected journey. And even if it's flawed and my inexperience shows, I hope my love of this book shows as well.
Speaking of books (oh, yeah that was subtle LOL), my entire Words of the Heart series is on sale this month for Kindle. The idea of what makes a home plays to some extent in all three books, but there's a quote in Hold Her Heart that really says what I'm saying about my home being in books...
 |
| Carry Her Heart |
 |
| These Three Words |
 |
| Hold Her Heart |
Dad’s laughter made me...look at him as he said, “Honey, that’s like saying you can only love one person. You can have many homes. Wherever someone you love is, that’s home.”
It's like that with books. When you find one you truly love, you've found a new home!
Thank you everyone who's started following my blog and my "novel" freshman experience!
Holly
PPS. In case you've missed them, here's Part Twelve, Part Eleven, Part Ten, Part Nine, Part Eight, Part Seven, Part Six, Part Five, Part Four, Part Three, Part Two, Part One
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