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.