My potholders are my messages to the world. They speak of where I am in my life. Last week I sat down and made a bunch of them. I didn’t have anything particular ideas in mind, I just made what I felt like. The first one I made was “I like what I see”. Words Jon spoke when he looked in the mirror one day. Words I never heard him say before. Finally, I thought, he can see the truth about what he really looks like and not the idea of himself he has in his head. I could definitely relate.
A couple of years ago I made a bunch of Umbrella Girl Potholders. They were girls holding umbrella’s. For most of my life I felt like I needed protecting. Like the world around me was filled with dangers and I was unsafe. I was afraid of everything from walking alone at night to using a computer to getting my mail. When I made the Umbrella Girl Potholders I was finally feeling like I didn’t need to be afraid anymore, that I could protect and take care of myself.
Last week I made a bunch of Ascension Girl Potholders. The idea started with the image of a girl living in a clear glass bottle. A place where she could see the world around her but was separate from it. Her only way out was the small opening at the top. The girl is in the bottle reaching up to the opening through which she can only see the smallest piece of a tree and its leaves, reaching down towards her and encouraging her to leave her “safe place”.
My Ascension Girls come from the “reaching girl” but now she is out of the bottle and moving up using her own powers.
These last two potholders come from poems I wrote. “Sleeping Seed” is the whole poem. Short as it is I could fit all of it on the potholder.
Today I will have a Cupcake come from my poem of the same name, which you can read here.
All my potholders are for sale. They are $20 each + $5 shipping for 1-2 and $10 shipping for 3 or more (a bit more for shipping outside the US)
If you see one that speaks to you, and would like to hang it and/or use it (all my potholders are working potholders) in your kitchen, just email me at [email protected]. I take checks and paypal.
Maria, more people should look in the mirror and say, “I like what I see!” And we should look at ourselves and say, “Something’s different” when it is. So often we rely on what others say instead of looking into our inner selves and appreciating who we are. Your pot holders, and everything else you do, are so creative, inventive and awe inspiring. I love to come to the blog and start my day with you, Jon and the animals. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Jane Mintz Los Angeles
I like them.
Maria, Just noticed that all the ascension girls are bare foot. Seems appropriate somehow, not sure why but my heart says “yes.. of course”.
Nothing to hold them down maybe, Lois.