You know you're a clayer when...

1.  You buy your wine because of the bottle!

We're off to Morrisburg in a few days and wine can sometimes flow freely.  I will be partaking because wine is a simple way of easing my essential tremor and I find it's less distracting to others watching me teach if they're not wondering if I am going to slice myself up or not.

A while back we had people over for dinner and I was thrilled when they brought this bottle of wine with them.  My first thought was that it was perfect for clay!  As an added bonus it's quite a nice white wine.  So this year, as part of my share of the spirits of Morrisburg, I've bought two bottles of Voga Italia wine.  One is the Pinot Grigio, which I know I like, and the other is a blush.  I'm certain that these bottles will be snapped up by one of the clayers.

2.  You guiltily try to figure out how to improve earrings that have been gifted to you.

My friend, Talar, recently went to Guyana for work for a few days.  I asked her to bring me back some earrings and she agreed.  I was thrilled when I opened the box, they're silver outlines of a marquise shape (I had to look up what you call a pointy-on-both-ends oval) and in each earring there are two of these shapes, one nesting inside the other.  They're very neutral, I can wear them with anything, they jingle a bit when I shake my head and I love them, really, truly, I do!

But....

That inner shape that's got nothing inside it is just calling out for a bit of clay.  Part of me is devastated that I want to improve on something that was purchased for me with the spirit of buying me something special.  Another part of me says that Talar knew I was a clayer and that I view the world from claying eyes and that this is a risk when you deal with clayers.   Talar is used to me saying "wow, that would be perfect for...".  If it were anyone other than Talar I wouldn't even be thinking about this option.

So I'm wrestling with myself on this.  I have spent several happy minutes or hours trying to figure out what would be best inside that little shape.  I do want it to be neutral and I don't really have any earrings with white in them that I absolutely love, so I'm leaning towards that.  Or maybe silver.  I'd like to use the dichroic papers that I still haven't used up as well but that would veto the white since the dichro isn't very interesting on the white.

I've already asked Talar if it would be OK if I modified them.  Of course, she has said yes because what else do you say when someone says that the most perfect thing you've given can be made better (not the words that I used but that's how I feel it came across).  She's also indicated that if she likes what I've done she'll get her similar style ones done by me.

I'll let you know what I end up doing.  It would be intersting to hear if others have similar experiences.

Cheers,

Sandy