Local Art, Part 2

This plate is another of my favorite things and I’m showing it to you because it makes me think of how important details are. This blue handmade pottery plate has an impression of lace that was pressed into it before it was fired. I love the deep, rich blue and I love the delicate lace imprints, too.

For several years it sat on my hutch near my dining room table and often became a receptacle for mail, barrettes, rubber bands, and other miscellaneous stuff that people deposited on their way past. I would clean them off, dust the plate and hope that people noticed it’s beauty (rather than it’s usefulness as a hold-all), but soon it would get buried again.

It took me several years to finally procure a hanger to get it up on the wall where it belonged! Years! Now everyone can see how beautiful it is and notice the lacy impressions and gorgeous color. It is displayed as a work of art, but remains perfectly handy should I ever want to use it as a serving platter.

When we leave small tasks undone (like buying a hanger), they build up in our minds and clog our creative energy. The antidote is to set a day aside every season to “get things done”. I’ve gone even further and started enlisting others to help me. I didn’t actually buy that hanger – I put it on my Christmas list and made my husband buy it for me (and then attach it to the wall). Every time I see that plate I get the double pleasure of its beauty, and the knowledge that one particular “detail” has fallen off my list.