I have a question for you. (Lovecraft fans will get this post.)

It's me again.

Who else?  I feel like my eyes require bedrest.  During this holiday season, I feel it's impossible to have a set schedule of simply eating or sleeping.  For a creative working college student like me, the schedule varies from working job one and job two, writing papers, doing homework, reading books, teaching children about art, and actually doing my own art.  I've been eating Instant Lunch and working the midnight shipment shifts this week, but in the midst of all of that, at least it was a good Thanksgiving.  I hope you all have had a good one, too!

In my quest to finding a good steampunk aesthetic for my claywork (if that's a word - you know what?  Too bad.  If not, it's my word now!) while simultaneously trying to find the time to actually work on it, I've come to sort of a conclusion. You see, I've been working on purely functional pieces with hints of steampunk design (note the gear trinket bowls - more designs of those are coming soon!) and I worry that I'm not pushing it far enough.  I've made some yarn bowls with tentacles that I feel are pretty successful.

This was taken before it was glazed.  To be shown finished in a later post!

Taken before it was glazed.  It's a different bowl with the same concept.  To be shown finished in a later post!

I've decided to make more flasks as well.  The flasks that I've made last semester (some shown below) all came out pretty well.  I mean, I'd rather go with some simple carved designs rather than have raised designs on them, but all in all, they fuction pretty well.  I mean, I used mine at the Steampunk World's Fair last year.  All they need are corks, really.  They each hold about 6 fl oz.


A raised design that I think is less successful than my simpler examples.

My boyfriend took this picture.  I think this is the best example of my raised designs on the flasks.  This is his flask. :)



Same 'crayon' thing used as in the cameo flask!  Wierd!

Less successful raised design, yet the glaze effect is pretty interesting.

 But other than that, I'm just not satisfied enough with my own work. Be it the Artist's Curse for never being satisfied with one's own work or not, I still feel like there's so much more to be done with clay.

And then, I had a dream.

Can't say for sure what it was, though.  Can't remember a thing.  I know, right?  You're probably asking yourselves: "If you don't remember anything Kelly, then how do you know that you've had a dream?"  Well, I'll take that question, and raise you a picture.

PH'NGLUI MGLW'NAFH CTHULHU R'LYEH WGAH'NAGL FHTAGN

Can you believe I did that?  I didn't even know it.  I woke up to find it there one night in the ceramics room, with my initials at the bottom, and in my handwriting.  The only conclusion?  I must have carved this beauty in my sleep.  I'm not sure what it is, exactly.  Looks like the body of a human, the wings of a dragon, and the head of an octopus.  There must be a name for it somewhere.  I wonder what it is?

I don't even remember writing the caption just now!  What a load of gibberish!  I must have fallen asleep and hit my head on the keyboard or something.  Hey, I'm tired enough to have done that.  Anyway, I'll keep it there for your amusement regardless.  Maybe someone out there can interpret something out of these letters, like maybe there's a word or two hidden in there in another wierd language.  Wouldn't that be funny?!

Well, here's my question for you:  What do you make of this?  I think it's a result of me dreaming, or dream-sculpting rather, during the long late hours of the night in the ceramics room of my university.  Anyone else have any other interpretations?  What should I make of this?  I mean, is it a horrible abomination of my ceramics handbuilding skills?  I'm almost thinking I should throw it away.  I mean, it kind of creeps me out.

...

Or I should just cast it and mass-produce it for all of those strange geeks out there who like this sort of thing.

I'm out.  I'm going to bed.  Even though I keep falling asleep, I feel like I'm not even getting any rest from it!  See you later!