The Story of the Bookworm

This is a craft I have had for YEARS. I just haven't done it. You need a bit of back story though...

My grandmother had a ceramic shop in the basement of the house I live in now. A room to pour in, and a room to hold green-ware until someone desired a piece then it would be fired.

These bookends were poured and sitting in the green-ware room. It was in many pieces. The head needed "slipped" onto the body and the hat was in pieces too.

It hadn't been touched in God knows how many years. Grandma died back in 1995. and she stopped doing ceramics YEARS before that.

So the lonely bookworm had sat there on the shelf in peices for an easy 10-15 years. Waiting for someone to want him. Then I moved in.

I was in the basement remembering Grandma and ceramics, the cool of the basement, the smells of the damp, and the slip that still is on the floor. All wonderful memories of summers spent in the basement because it was too hot to be outside. When and I saw him. I decided I would put him together. now it wasn't the best laid plan. I used broken green-ware and water to make slip (a big no no) and i carefully went to putting him together, I used too much slip and had to carve out his neck and hat to make him look as he should.

Grandma hated to slip objects together, and I will admit it is a real pain the the tukas. So it was no surprise that he had been in peices. After I had him together I felt better. I didnt feel as if I missed Grandma as much. A kind of calmess settled over me, and yes I left him in the basement, after all I had no kiln and there wasn't anything more I could do.

Then Mom bought a kiln. I was so excited I had him in the first fire. But then he disappeared. :( and was forgotten....

Yesterday he reappeared in a box of "unwanteds". This wonderful craft that was almost 20 years in the making, spanned three generations. An undeniable connection between Grandma and me. We did not share much but we do share this.

Now hes finished. And I have a smile as large as his :)