and finally for the year...

merry christmas to you all ...
i hope you all have a safe, happy and inspiring time .

thank you for all your kind words
and support this year...

k x

a blossom says "i do..."

this weekend
my very dear friend erin married her true love bill.
the wedding was beautiful ... just beautiful

and on sunday night i had my annual
christmas party, a small but magical gathering this year.

there's a quote i love that says:

life is not measured in the number of breaths you take
but in the number of moments that take your breath away

and this weekend
the joy and love and friendship
that surrounded me was nothing short of inspiring...

and it was a timely reminder
that despite the parts of life that are hard to carry through each day
the beautiful moments and the people that surround you
(those near and those far)
are to be treasured and never to be taken for granted...

and a...

partridge in a pear tree
(or a bird in a christmas tree)

this ornament is by my talented and very dear friend
rebecca ryan...
bec and her partner tim
make the most magical things
from clay to soap to things made of cloth...
clay paper cloth their business
has stalls at the bangalow and other markets
around the gold coast and northern nsw...

bec and i share a birthday, literally,
same day, same year, born in the same city
just on opposite sides of the river...
she has a spring palette to her work
and i autumn,
bec is a constant inspiration
both artistically and how she lives her life...
i am lucky to call her friend...

a touch of joy on friday

my dear friend roxanne
and i exchange an ornament every year
and even if weeks (and indeed months, seemingly years)
pass with not much catch up our special friendship remains,
as does our tradition...

my ornament arrived today wrapped ever so beautifully
with a piece of jade plant as decoration
... the parcel was good enough to hang on the tree ...

i know how much roxy loves reading all the inspiring
blogs out there so this is a thank-you to her
and all those other readers who (although i don't have a comments
component to mine) tell me through email and letters
how they read and find inspiration amongst my
(and others) ramblings...

your ornament is in the post roxy girl
merry merry. x

HO HO HO .

i love this HO HO HO. starry ornament
by a fellow potter and friend across the seas: rae dunn

in the seventies tradition...

...but a more recent addition:

you got to love a disco ball...

living in the seventies...

i was a child of the seventies, so my collection

was started early in that decade with this sparkly number...
it still twinkles brightly
even though every year it loses a bit more glitter...

how lucky we are...

my dad used to be a journalist for our state newspaper

the courier-mail and he would bring home off cuts of paper -
so during my childhood we always had
a never-ending supply (it seemed) to write and draw on...

i remember very clearly one day when i was very young
my mum telling me how lucky i was
to have paper to draw on,
because when she was a little girl (growing up in a remote bush town
just after the second world war)
they would soak off the jam labels from tins and
use the paper the bread came wrapped in as their
writing and drawing paper...

this has always stayed with me,
both in the realisation of the fortunate life i have lead
(especially in terms of materials and freedom for making art)
and also in our use and re-use of materials and
the consequences for our dear earth.

this story leads me to the image above...
every year my mum and dad would give each of us kids an ornament.
when i left home i took with me a beautiful and eclectic collection
that still decorate my tree to this day...

every year they still give us one, and now i give them one too.
and it is this sense of memory, love, and history
that is the ethos in the ornament-making part of my business...

last year mum gave me the ornament above,
a match box, covered in discarded wrapping paper and ribbon
with an unwound paper clip as the hanger...
she said she gave it to me so i would never
forget that the beautiful can be made in times
of leanness, or struggle (or sadness).
that beauty can be made out of the recycled and cast aside...
and also, that we should never forget how lucky we are.

it is one of my most favourite ornaments now
because of its meaning... and because it reminds me that
i am never to old to learn a lesson
(even if i think i know it already...)

over the next week i will show you other special ornaments
in my collection, but i thought this a nice way to start.

words

this week i bought a painting that has words on it...
beautiful sad words

and above is a piece of work
i have as part of my ceramic collection in my home...
it is by english ceramic artist cj o'neill
the words cut out around the plate read:

today there is no wind to hold me back

as i write new poetry, collect art works,
read books, watch films, listen to music...
i am aware more and more of the power of words...
how they can enrich, and also,
how they can tug at your heart...
this isn't anything new (of course !), no revolutionary thought...

but this time of year, and at this point in time,
i think it so important not just think it,
but to say, to write words to those we hold dear...

another piece of cj's work i have says on it:

we are made of stars you and i

(and we are) k x

letters...

make words....
and words, in turn, make poems:

of love...
of distance & the absence of it....
of glimmers of hope....
& of whatever, which-ways, and maybes.... . ... .

to market to market...

one of the nicest things about being in a market
is being able to see & purchase work by other artists...
above is 2 great little pieces i bought from brisbane potter ky curran
on the weekend at the GoMA markets...
i bought a few other bits and pieces from ky & other stall holders
but some of them will be christmas presents
so they can't be revealed .

despite the hot day brisbane decided to give us
(and i mean hot)
the market was a successful day & there were lots of crowds
to support locally made & designed work.

it was a lovely chance to step out into the world
& meet the people who buy my work...

one lady commented to me that she had been
collecting & following my work since i first started
making my inky poem collage cards 12 years ago !!
this sort of feedback makes all the hard work worth it...
especially when the year is winding up and
i am so tired & emotional from exhaustion
& other parts of life that crowd my heart.

thank you to all those other creative souls who shared
saturday's market... you are all so inspiring

yesterday a quick trip...

to sydney for a few reasons

(the image above being one of them)

enough said...

how lovely

to be featured in the new issue of InsideOut

with one of my friends and favourite ceramic artists
mel robson

we both use text in our work:
mel with recipes, letters and other forms of handwriting
(of which she says she is obsessed... really obsessed)

& me on vessels with my own poetry,
and on quote tags with quotes by some of histories
greatest thinkers, writers and artists...

at the moment my poetry vessels are low on stock in
some stores that stock them
this is due to sales of the work (which i am grateful for)
and also due to the amount of work i am able to produce
my apology's for this.

this saturday i will have a small collection
of poetry vessels at the GoMA markets
(as mentioned in the previous post)

and the remainder of these after the market will be sent to
the gallery store at the queensland art gallery
and coming up roses at balmoral...

details of these, and other stores
are on my stockists page HERE