with acceptance comes happiness

The first two pieces for the box are out and de-molded and brushed off but not had the vinegar soak yet, giving them a day to settle first. They look good. I try for certain color and intensity when filling the mold but it's always a surprise after firing. All three colors turned out to be stronger than I was going for which is OK, probably because I used some powders and sifted the finest particles out of the frit. I'm determined to be OK with, to accept the way everything turns out, not harbor any disappointment, as long as they cast completely and maybe even if they don't. It depends. I'm mostly concerned about the feet.

I had quite a bit too much glass in the inlay mold and will have to grind off over 1/8” thickness but the top I did a better job of calculating and only have to grind off about 1/16”.

Here's the test piece, the face with flowers on the heart. This is just brushed off as well and needs to be flattened on the bottom so more grinding there but that will wait.

All the corals, the crab, and the four feet are currently in the kiln. I wanted to do the corals and crab in one firing and the feet in another but Marc put them all in together, not sure how many firings he will get out of the kiln before the top and door elements crap out. They might not. We're really just casting these pieces on a wing and a prayer. Still one more firing after this one for the body of the box which I've decided to do in a light aqua. I hope the finished piece all comes together with so many elements and different colors with the white top and feet.

One of the regulars at Abby's yoga class recently decided to get certified as a yoga instructor through an enrichment program for teachers and students connected to the ISD where she works (not really sure of the details) and her 'final' is in a few days so she practiced on us last Wednesday, her first try to actually lead a class, and she started out by saying that she wanted us to focus on acceptance during the class, acceptance of what our bodies can or can't do at this particular time, acceptance of the things in our lives, that without acceptance there cannot be happiness, that happiness comes only through acceptance. I thought that rang true. Maybe not happiness because happiness is fleeting but certainly contentment and isn't contentment really what we want in our lives, content with who and what we are and have?

It certainly applied to our lives as working artists. We had no guaranteed income, living basically hand to mouth. It varied month to month, year to year depending on how much work we had. Some months we had no income, some months we managed, some months we were in high cotton. Part of being able to live as we did was to accept the fact that this was going to be the way of it, probably would never be able to afford a lot of things, the 'stuff' my kids' peers' families had, expensive playthings mostly, the stuff our culture told us to want. We always managed the basics and the important stuff and now and then something special. When our peers were double and triple locking their doors at all times, living in fear of being robbed, we lived with our door open to the world with no such worries. By the time we could afford to buy stuff, we really didn't want to, used to a simpler life.

Happiness through acceptance, accepting what our chosen path allowed us, freed us from being jealous of our friends' successes, from living fearfully. Well, mostly. There were times when I resented an artist's success who had a working spouse that supported them, when someone got into a show and I didn't, when a friend got a commission that I thought I was going to get, when other artists sold work at shows and I didn't, etc. which only made me unhappy and depressed. Acceptance is a practice, like yoga. And when I practice it, I'm happier.

Well, once again it was my night to provide dinner last night. I did a simple meatless stir fry with naan.

Onion, garlic, celery, carrot, broccoli, yellow squash, and cabbage. After this cooked down a little more I pushed it all to the sides and added 2 beaten eggs in the middle and scrambled them, slowly mixing in the vegetables, added the cooked short grain brown rice and some soy sauce. It was really good.