Waste not, want not

As a child I was brought up with the idiom "waste not, want not", and throughout my life I have tried to keep to the 3 R's, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Unfortunately, when working with clay, things do not always end up the way they were planned. This means that sometimes I finish with a piece which isn't 'right', but I do not want to throw away. I was reading yesterday about a ceramicist, Pierre Bayle, who built all his imperfect or broken pots into a wall outside his home in France; I have a long way to go before I can build a wall!

So far, I have had 2 attempts to create something in clay to compliment the beauty of this piece of yew.

Both attempts have failed, leaving me with 2 pieces requiring another use. A visit to a local garden centre found me admiring their display of Tillandsias, or Air plants, and set the old cogs in the brain working. Another visit, which lightened my purse by several pounds, and some judicial gluing resulted in a suitable new use and a happy Wendy!

Tillandsia, ceramic and sea-glass (height~9cm diam~14cm)

Tillandsia and ceramic (height~35cm width~11cm)

Being a compulsive beachcomber means that I have a large collection of shells, pebbles and driftwood in various bowls around the house. A gift of 2 deep frames, which my Mum had found in a charity shop, has enabled me to create a display with some of my treasures from beaches; once again putting my 3 R's to good use.