Birthdays are wonderful celebrations and especially milestone ones like a 60th. It was with great joy that I attended and celebrated my cousin’s 60th birthday with her recently. There was lots of good food, family and friends to eat all of it, and we all had fun together. The birthday cake always brings these special occasions to an exceptionally “sweet” culmination.
There were many “photographers” there as many of us wanted to fully enjoy every wonderful moment of being together and to capture it too. My own little Sony was along with me. I have great shots with all the children collecting tadpoles from the pond and playing around that area of the garden as only children can delight in such simple things. I have lovely photos of the “birthday girl” with several important people – like her children (who were all there) and her husband, brothers, sister, friends, and cousins.
The photos in these collages I am sharing with you are especially beautiful pieces of art all done by my cousin’s husband who is a potter. To visit this home is to know from the time you get there that there are artists living here. My cousin too is a visual artist. The
Potter’s Shed in the garden stands as a wonderful backdrop to all the beautiful pieces of pottery that are around the garden – not to mention those in the home, and the gallery. I started to take a real interest in pottery when I first met this potter over forty years ago.
“Ceramics is one of the most ancient industries on the planet. Once humans discovered that clay could be dug up and formed into objects by first mixing with water and then firing, the industry was born. As early as 24,000 BC, animal and human figurines were made from clay and other materials, then fired in kilns partially dug into the ground. Almost 10,000 years later, as settled communities were established, tiles were manufactured in Mesopotamia and India. The first use of functional pottery vessels for storing water and food is thought to be around 9000 or 10,000 BC. Clay bricks were also made around the same time.”
When I think back to the first pottery pieces I had ever had, they came from this potter’s hands. They were beautiful cups and bowls given as a wedding present to us. He was a fledgling potter then. What is interesting about all this is to see the process at work here and how it would take years of practice and experience to become an artisan. While I would have liked to see him making these pieces forty years ago, the time for that had not yet come . “Let us never make the mistake of regarding the product before the producer—of regarding what is made more highly than him who makes it—for the great value of any art is not what is made but what happens to him who makes it during its making. For there is no satisfaction like that of mastering a craft from beginning to end, of having command at your finger tips of all materials and processes. All short-cuts and artificial aids are to be put aside as a healthy man would put aside crutches. We should walk every step of the way on our own feet.”
There is no greater satisfaction than to see someone mastering their craft and to see how it embellishes their life, their home, and the people around them. To have beauty in one’s life and to share this beauty with others is to be truly blessed. It was a beautiful 60th Birthday Party. I was honoured to be there. A little saying below for you:
All this of Pot and Potter–Tell me then,
Who is the Potter, pray, and who the Pot?
–Omar Khayyam (“The Tent-Maker”),The Rubaiyat (st. 87), (FitzGerald’s translation)
Hope you enjoy these collages from the hands of my very own Potter.
References