ordination

It's been a very long time since I have updated this site, let alone worked on a bowl. Thank you to people who have checked on the site, and have contacted me--I am so sorry for the horribly long delay, but this has been on the back burner for awhile. I'm hoping to change that once the holidays are over, so bear with me! Thanks. If you're working on a bowl, feel free to email me and I can hopefully put up your progress on this blog!

This weekend is a very special occasion: the ordination of one of my dearest friends and mentors, D. He and his wife commissioned me to make the most recent bowls for their trip, and they have been so supportive and wonderful ever since I was in high school. After a very long process, the classes, paperwork, interviews and everything else Lutherans can throw at one, he will be able to wear the snazzy tab collar and officiate stuff and all the benefits and challenges of being a full-fledged pastor.

With those challenges in mind, I made this bowl. If you remember, I tried my hand at bead weaving this summer, on a cheapo kiddie loom that worked pretty well. It stayed half-finished for months, and then I thought about it again. I was all ready to make a verse bowl, but somehow it seemed too small, couldn't encompass what I was thinking and feeling. So I finished the woven panel, then passed more warp wires through the panel sideways to attach it to the loom again. I wove more beads up to the center panel, then added my favorite stones, lapis lazuli. These are used to make ultramarine blue pigments, ground into a powder. They are very expensive in their purest form, mostly originating in Afghanistan.

After the cross was finished, I made two rings to hold the bowl together. Each of the warp wires snugly fits between the gold beads on the ring, then onto the bottom ring. The tension of the wires hold the shape of the bowl. It was challenging, but I'm pretty happy it turned out.

The symbolism is pretty clear, I think: the cross is the dominant shape, which should be the major focus of any pastor, and every Christian. The people of the Church are represented by the beads, each beautiful by itself but even more stunning when unified and woven together. The gold wire is very thin, but holds everything in place, like the Holy Spirit--we can't see Him, but without Him we would fly apart. It's hard enough staying together with the Holy Spirit. So. I bundled it all up in an old, heavily taped cigar box and sent it off to Michigan, where D moved so many years ago. I wish I could have given it to him in person, but it's just not a good time to travel with so much going on over here.

wherever you go

This is the last piece I made for friends of friends, and is unfortunately wandering somewhere in Germany, lost in the post. I am wondering what to do about that, and perhaps I might need to make another one and send it again. That's ok though, because the verse is excellent: "Be strong and courageous. Do not be dismayed or terrified; for the Lord will be with you wherever you go." It was hard to get a good picture of this one, as I made the "bowl" shape a little more abstract, and the wherever you go section travels out from the top center to the bottom edge. I like what I did with the Lord's name, putting more crimp beads along the L to make it stand out more. Perhaps people could pray that it finds its way to the lovely family for whom it was intended!

love one another

This is another piece I made for friends of friends. The verse is ."..as I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know you are my disciples, if you love one another." The wire was a smaller gauge than the other bowl, so it went a lot more quickly. The last "love one another" part comes up over the rest of the piece, as the command is an over-arching one.

in progress

I've just started to figure out how to weave beads, using a bead loom I found for super-cheap. Here's some gold beads with wire as the warp and weft, which hopefully I'll be able to form into a bowl shape. It's tedious work, so I think the prayer might be for unity in the church. Getting every bead in line, incorporating them into the fabric of the piece, is very difficult at first. So here's a sneak peek...

abby's bowl

My friend Abby recently finished this beauty, which is wire woven onto thicker posts soldered around a bronze (?) washer, about 8 inches across. It's an amazing example of something my friend found in a commentary on Revelation: each successive event in the book of Revelation radiates from the throne, further and further out to encompass the whole world and bring the new heavens and new earth into being. The radiating circles of praise and worship of the Lamb become wider and wider. It's lovely, Abby!

poema

This bowl I made on commission for some friends, and it is the passage, "for we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." (in Ephesians) In the Greek text, the word for workmanship is actually poema, which is where our word for poem comes from. It's nice to think of our lives as a poem, carefully crafted with just the right words and flow and meter, rather than a construction site or something more cobbled together with steel I-beams.

I ordered gold-colored copper wire from an awesome jewelry site, Fire Mountain Gems, but I realized as I worked on the text that I ordered a gauge larger than the other wire I have. As a consequence, my hands were nearly spent by the time I got to wiring the bowl together. So this bowl is a bit larger than the others, but it will be more sturdy as well.

peace bowl

This is made from about 16 or 17 origami peace cranes, which I then glued together by the wing tips. It looks like a crown as well, so I call it the crown of peace.