Monday, March 1, 2010

Lemme tell ya 'bout a friend ah mine ...

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose

ourselves at the same time.

~ Thomas Merton
 
 
We're up early, warm toast and hot tea in my tummie and the screw gun next door is at it. I've been blog hopping and found the quote above over at Auntie Moon's ... something to chant along the way during the first three days of March (while the Sun is in Pisces/Moon in Libra).  Before the dust stirred my mind my heart went to the joy of friends who do this very thing Thomas Merton speaks of:  ART.

I have friends who are making this sort of ART in there everyday.  In and around the daily slog life can dish up, Joan and Lana have been mess'n in the mud and having a grand time with ceramic bowls and beads.  I have known these women over the while.  Our journeys have been intimate, and then not.  Time and circumstance can do that to friendships.  It is the art of everyday that does invite one to 'find and lose ... at the same time.' And, it's the internet that weaves mending magic that does not come on its own.


Off Center Productions is the art my friends have crafted from their love of design.  A Ram and a Bull (an Aries and a Taurus) make ceramic beads and 'Mother Bowls' of porcelain. I see in the designs JT's love of global traditions and their love of dirt and growing things.   I have known these gals when we were all part of corporate jungle gymnastics. We are older now and look at what we have found to do with our lives



..."The tradition of forming beads out of clay is an ancient one and the magic of combining fine porcelain beads with crystals, silver, gold, and glass is ancient. Our pottery studio strives to create one of a kind, truly unique porcelain pendants and beads...
Joan and Lana's studio is in Lacey, Washington in the southern Puget Sound area near Olympia.  Their on-line shop is fun to browse and if you're shopping to buy, their new line of beads and doodahs are in stock.  Link to OFF CENTER PRODUCTIONS here.



Sending blessings for the maples who have given so much pleasure:  Aloha and Mahalo la'au maple.  Hugs 'round your stout trunks.




 

  

2 comments:

Joan Tucker said...

Ah yes the maples and me need hugs.. JT

Mokihana Calizar said...

Yes, to all of yous in your hale, hugs!
Mokihana