Above is a photo of one of my favorite teapots in my new body of work. Why is it my favorite? Because it turned out even BETTER than I was hoping for. The glaze has amazing depth and dynamics that I certainly couldn’t predict. The deep blue crystal formations floating on the surface were slightly noticeable on the first test tile, but I never knew how beautiful the effect would be on the surface of my pots. The copper carbonate in the glaze also “fumes” around my underglaze, creating a sort of natural vignette. As far as the illustration goes, it’s my favorite orchid as of late, Miltonia clowesii. It is a native of Brazil– speaking of, I have some big news.

(The photo is of my most recent tea cups that I finished decorating last night. which also have the Miltonia clowesii on them)

A couple of weeks ago, I was nominated by my professor to compete for the Windgate Fellowship Award. It is a craft based award, given to 10 lucky crafters in the United States every year. There are 115 universities invited to participate, and only 2 nominees chosen from each university. In short, it is a great honor to even be nominated to compete. The 10 winners receive a $15,000 grant award to use to further develop their craft– often contributing to a trip abroad. The day I got the email about being nominated and read through the past awardees’ plans, I came up with something brilliant. The basic idea is that I want to go to Brazil for a month to see the Amazon rain forest and find different plants and animals to inspire me– and then come back, hopefully get my own kiln, materials, and strap down to just make work for a few months until I have enough to put together my own exhibition of the work. Depending on how well I present my plan to the board depends on whether I even have a chance. I’ve thought about it a bunch, and I am considering taking the trip to Brazil even if I don’t win. Just because I’ve always wanted to see the tropics in South America, and I have a few contacts down there already. I won’t be able to afford the kiln I want for a while, but someday I will make things work out. For now, I just gotta work on the proposal and keep creating my ceramic work 🙂