Ending the Year with a small Ceremony

Ending the year with a prayerful ceremony is just what I needed. I went to my friend and teacher Barbara yesterday. It was a cold -wet day, the sun just didn't want to come out, but we made a small, smokey fire ( wet wood) and started our prayer journey in the Four Directions.
With each stone we placed, with each offering, our prayers for peace, for open heartedness, for illumination to human kind , we got deeper and deeper into our words , so that they came out flowing -unthinking and right.
It felt so healing to my body and mind. It nourished my soul deeply.
When I got home I got on the couch and just needed rest. Ceremony can be exhausting :)
I hope we reached you !

Wishing you a wonderful Holiday

Raku Love

I am so excited to have finished all my Raku pottery before Christmas. Now I have many gifts to pass on. I have been working on a pot every night and find this handwork deeply soothing and grounding.
Hand-building takes a lot more time and similar to hand sewing it's pace is conducive to one's physical and mental health . In these fast times we treat ourselves well if we nurture doing things at the speed that we as humans evolved in ancient times :walking, hand sewing, hand-building, carving by hand, weaving and the list goes on. Nurture your nerves !
More on Raku here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raku_ware#cite_note-13

having way too much fun with my iphone camera apps

One more thing

You can also find me on Instagram now -gotta keep up with my daughter :  @anne_siems_art

anne_siems_art

Anne Siems

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The Year is Almost Over

The other day I was looking through almost all my posts of this year to find some passages about my art work for my art show in Portland. I really enjoyed this look back on my year and realize that this blog is a type of diary for me. Maybe one day even my daughter will enjoy it...

The last months have had so many horrible news, where do we begin. I try to know and learn enough about the issues and try the hardest where I can begin with me. Shopping as little as possible and if possible 2nd hand. Going to a ( sadly very small) rally on Saturday after Black Friday to bring awareness out about climate change.
And I am getting so much joy out of my pottery, about crafting with friends and taking pictures ( like crazy...see above) with my Hipstamatic. 
Here is some more ( chuckle):