Jay Jasper's Blog, page 119
October 21, 2020
On The Wheel Wednesday
And we play, allowing and encouraging it to reveal the fullness of itself.
With patience and calmness, it is unveiled.
And completed.
(Until it changes once again)
“There is nothing permanent
except change.”
– Heraclitus –
October 19, 2020
Mugshot Monday
Mug 1
$30
October 18, 2020
This Week At The Studio In Photos
A maple tree burns bright for fall
2020 Ornaments on the tree in the new studio space!
2020 ornaments up close in the Holiday Gift Guide
The trees are ablaze with the colours of change!
A new shapely addition to the Alchemist’s Studio
The night sky reminding us of our sizeThat’s been the week here.
How’s your week been?
October 17, 2020
Announcing . . .Something exciting!
Be the first to get your order in of handmade pottery and artwork and with plenty of time for shipping right to your door!
Ornaments, Angels, Trees and much more! Shipping included in Canada and the US!Click here to view the Holiday Gift Guide now!
She Was the World! But her husband was a real pain In the Butt. Here’s What She Did!
Last week, we told the story of the raku pottery vase – The Titans – and a time before the gods, which you can read here. But what of a time before Cronus and Rhea? This week we are firing up the trusty time machine once again to answer the question of what was before them.
Gaia’s Revenge –
$285Today’s vase story, Gaia’s Revenge, tells the tale of a plucky mother that came from chaos, to form and become the source of life and sustenance for our planet. But as nice as all that is, she was also married to a real pain in the butt, whose control issues caused her more pain than childbirth. She’d of course solve this problem, with a little help and she’d inspire a certain Bobbit in the the future.
Let’s be clear about one thing. Gaia was first. It was from her, that sprang her controlling, and unreasonable partner. She has her own day named after her, and he is indeed the butt of many jokes made even today. Gaia was the mother of Cronus, and regretfully the partner of Uranus.
Gaia came from Chaos, harnessing the best of their creative energy. The day came that a certain sexy sky god sprang from her and she was quite smitten. He was as beautiful as the night sky, because, he was in fact the night sky! How could she resist his expansive twinkles and flashes of light.
In a moment inspired by the beauty of Uranus, she had a brilliant idea! That instead of her just creating on her own, that maybe a collaboration was in order. And so it was that she was able to convince Uranus to have children with her. Their new relationship energy brought much bliss – and children. It was during this time that she gave birth to the Giants, the Titans, Oceanus and indeed the whole world. Gaia thought everything was fine. Until one day …
Uranus had enough. And you might have too if your children ranged from several species, some one off creatures, all together numbering over fifty. Eventually he had enough of all these wild and unruly offspring, and decided to imprison the youngest of his children. And in no way was Uranus interested in any more booty calls with Gaia. No matter how much of that new drink called wine she gave him.
Gaia was not pleased that Uranus had imprisoned their children. Even more unsavoury was the fact that he imprisoned them in the bowels of the Earth. And we all know that Earth is another name for Gaia, and what he thought of as her bowels, she saw as her womb. No wonder this couple was in serious trouble.
Little did Uranus know that his son Cronus was just waiting to depose his father who was flush with power. When Gaia asked who was brave enough amongst her sons to castrate their father, it was only Cronus who had the balls to do so!
As Uranus’ testicles and blood hit the Earth many more children would emerge from his final fertile act. With one slice of a sickle, his job as master of the universe was down the toilet.
So the next time you see an image of Gaia with a sickle, just know the real reason why it’s there. And maybe we should all remember that Gaia is only going to put up with so much of our garbage.
What did you think of our latest vase and story? Let me know in the comments below. You can check out more raku pottery vases and their stories here.
October 16, 2020
Name That Vase – October 2020
It’s time to share our winner and feature another vase in need of a name! Welcome to my monthly feature – ‘Name that Vase’.
For those who are new to this feature, ‘Name that Vase’ is where you can suggest a name, create a story, poem or prose for this raku pottery vase. Consider this your chance to be inspired, a writing prompt or a creative cue. You can, or if you are feeling nostalgic,that started what has now become a monthly tradition for our blog and readers.
This month we have a very special vase for your naming, but first we must congratulate last time’s winner Lynda McKinney Lambert for their name and write-up! Congratulations!
Abalone Sky
I suggest “Abalone Sky” for this powerful “vase-for-all-seasons,” and I wrote this poem for it.
–
abalone sky
Polynesian pearl in sunshine
silken snow melting
bronze leaf clusters on smoke tree
wet branches that feel satisfied
–
by Lynda McKinney Lambert
$
64 And into our new month!
Here is our vase for this month:
Please add what you think the name should be for this month’s vase and any associated poetry or story in the comments below. I look forward to reading all your great ideas!
If you have coronavirus on mind (as so many of us do right now) please check out this helpful post, B-B-B Bye Corona, Self-Care In The Time of Pandemic.
October 15, 2020
Thursday Throwdown October 15, 2020
It’s vase-to-vase combat like you have never seen before!
How it works: We share two vases and YOU vote which is your favourite! The winner will then move on to the next round to face another competitor!
For two weeks in a row an EXTREMELY tight battle where Mount Olympus has won by a SINGLE vote! Can our next competitor break this winning streak?
Get your votes in below!
Argus
$225
The Series so far.
Gorgeous Vases of No Contact Wrestling
Vase Name
Gossip Girl
Phoenix Reborn
Pillar of Atlas
Evangeline
Ogopogo
Iris En Ciel
Original Twin
Kermit The Vase
Haring’s Dance
White Walker
Sobek’s Tears
Mount Olympus
Argus
Wins/Losses
0/1
2/1
0/1
4/0
0/1
0/1
0/1
1/1
0/1
1/1
1/1
2/0
0/1
And so it was that A new competitor Has entered the ring!
Draupnir
$74
‘Draupnir’ tells the tale of dwarven headhunters, a father’s love, the ultimate wealth multiplier, and a journey to hell and back. It’s about a gift, made in response to a wager, that almost cost a trickster his head.
Forged in fire, Draupnir was one of three gifts which also included the Mjollnir and the Gullinbursti. They were created by dwarves, Brokkr and Sindri, as part of a wager with Loki. Loki made a bet that they could not make better gifts than the Sons of Ivaldi.
Loki must have lost his head, betting against the brothers. He was very wrong, and this was no small wager.
The dwarven brothers may have won the contest because of the Mjollnir (Thor’s Hammer), but the Draupnir was literally worth it’s weight in gold – actually eight times it’s weight in gold!
It was time for Loki to pay up and he had wagered his head. But as usual Loki had a trick up his sleeve. He argued that in order for the brothers to take his head they would need to injure his neck and that wasn’t part of the bargain.
The dwarves discussed, and settled for sewing his lips together with wire.
Perhaps just to shut him up.
‘Draupnir’, old Norse for The Dripper, was no slouch of a gift. It was a golden arm ring with a special ability: every nine days it would drip out eight new arm rings of the same weight and quality of gold!
Move over Michael Bloomberg, that’s quite a return on investment!
This arm ring would become a prized possession of Odin’s, but in the ultimate act of a father’s love Odin placed it on the funeral pyre of his son Baldr.
But the rings story does not end here.
In the land of death, Baldr would give the ring to the messenger god Hermodr, who would ultimately return it to Odin.
A circular journey to Hell and back rings true for ‘Draupnir‘ – but if you buy this vase, please don’t return it to me.
It’ll be yours. I insist.
Mount Olympus
$240
Zeus was not like the other gods. He knew what he wanted and he would get it. And he knew all it would take is a little bit of Magnum, Ferrari, or a dose of Le Tigre.
Unfortunately, meeting his philandering goals also meant killing mortals and upsetting the other gods and – much more than once – his goddess wife Hera.
“Zeus is here to set the record straight! What was Zeus to do? It was not his fault everyone wanted him! He was blessed with being “Zeus’ gift to women” everywhere! Surely, nobody could blame him for that!”
“This is complete ZeuSlander!”
Indeed, It was true that the people simply couldn’t resist him – Mostly due to him being an all powerful god,
Zeus. was. “IT.”
Zeus’ tangled love life (including many rather questionable relationships) resulted in all of these children.
His harem included
Leto who was the mother of Apollo and ArtemisSemele who was the mother of DionysusMaia who was the mother of HermesDione who was the mother of AphroditeHera, the wife of Zeus was the mother of Ares, Hebe and HephaestusDemeter, the sister and lover of Zeus, was the mother of Persephone
One thing was perfectly clear: By gods, he knew how to pose!
It was no freak gasoline fight accident that brought this vase to life, but rather, the magic of raku and when the ash was cleared, Zeuslander was left to ponder life’s important questions alone on Mount Olympus – forever searching for an answer to “why male models?”
Who will be your victor? Be sure to get your vote in BELOW!
Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.I choose this vase as the winner.DraupnirMount OlympusNameSubmit
Their fate is now in your hands!
We will share the winner (and update from last week!) next Thursday!
October 14, 2020
On The Wheel Wednesday
It sometimes feels like their are two opposing sides, where one side takes the high road, and the other the low.
Each moment, day or Election is a choice. Which side will you choose?
Healing for ourselves and society comes when we can learn to raise the bar for each of those sides and meet somewhere in the middle.
If 2020 has taught us anything, it is that the world and ourselves are in need of healing. Healing begins within each of us. Let’s raise the bar on all our choices and remember to be kind to each other. When kindness guides our choices and we remember that we are all interconnected, we can change the world.
You can learn more about our work here at the studio and what we are all about in just one minute. Check out our introductory video and subscribe to our youtube channel, which I am hoping to hitting 100 subscribers, so I can finally get my own link!
October 13, 2020
God is a Woman
This vase tells the tale of an exceptional deity among the pantheons of ancient gods. Amaterasu is one of the few female solar gods. Her full name means ‘Great Divinity Illuminating Heaven’ and she is one of the principal gods in the Shinto religion. You can check out another vase inspired by a sun god here.
Amaterasu – Raku Pottery VaseYou can see more images of the raku pottery vase Amaterasu here.
Here we tell one of the more interesting stories of this great beauty that involve her petulant and mischievous brother, Susanoo, a defiled crafting room, a goddess in hiding, 800 plotting gods, more roosters than Colonel Saunders would know what to do with, a partial strip tease and a clever trick.
Susanoo must have been going through his teenager years in this story, because he was out of control, messing with the rice fields, and his sister’s home. Amaterasu had finally had enough when he decided to throw a flayed horse into her weaving hall. Apparently she took her craft pretty seriously, so she decided to hide in a cave.
This of course presented a problem. I did mention that Amaterasu was the Shinto sun god. Things got pretty dark at this point in the story, with the world being plunged into darkness and all. This was such a big problem that 800 myriads of gods got together to sort out a solution to coax Amaterasu out of the cave.
Can you imagine 800 myriads of gods searching for roosters? The gods assembled all the cocks they could find in front of the cave and propped up a mirror and some jewelry in front of the cave. Another goddess, Amenouzume wanted to get the crowd of gods going, so she turned over a tub to act as her impromptu stage, partially disrobed and started dancing.
Amaterasu – Raku Pottery Vase, DetailsThe gods were delighted to see the show and were laughing and having a good time, and Amaterasu was puzzled as to how everyone could be so happy while the world was in darkness.
To complete their plan, the gods told Amaterasu that there was a god more illustrious and beautiful than she was outside of the cave. Both shocked and curious, she peaked outside of the cave and is if on cue, all those roosters started to crow, and then she saw her reflection in the mirror and was thus lured out of the cave.
Amaterasu – Raku Pottery VaseAmaterasu, there is no god or vase more beautiful than you. If you want to find out and check out more vases and their stories, you can do so here. What do you think of this vase and story?
October 12, 2020
This Week At The Studio In Photos
Pumpkins outside in early fall
A closeup of “The Titans” Raku Vase
The apples are coming to an end for this year
A new shapely addition to the Alchemist’s Studio
A sneak peak at our new mugs!That’s been the week here.
How’s your week been?
