last week i finished up my 100 pocket prayerlets of which you can see in the little film below. if you click on it, it will become a little larger so hopefully you won't need to hunt for a magnifying glass because i am not sure if many folks even have those lying around anymore.

it is a marvelous thing for me to see what 41 days of turning up in my studio can create.

the abundance that comes from holding myself accountable to the dream of an exhibition aged 90 really does have me leaning into a 'anything is possible at this time' way of thinking.

shortly after taking this little capture of pocket prayerlet delights & several days of not turning up to create in my studio, i dismantled the gloriousness into little piles of likeness & recounted them.

96!! what the what?!! how can that be?! what trickery is this?! so i counted again & recounted again. i thought perhaps if i count & pray too that might help but alas, i kept coming up with 96. for 41 days i had my very important piece of paper checking off numbers each day so the mystery was clearly quite deep.

of course there were some days when creating happened in the late hours, tired but committed i turned up anyway & on other days i helped my future self out creating papers set up for the next day. a bit like the elf & the shoemaker, laying out everything except no elves appeared overnight so actually it wasn't anything like the shoemaker so no idea why i let him join in here.

i realize i did not get any certificate when leaving school that said i could count to 100 successfully but still, i felt sure i had got this far in life, surely i could keep account of this important mathematical challenge.

4 days after declaring to myself & the world at large = an empty temple aside from one sleeping snoring cat, "FINITO!! look at what i can achieve when i put my mind & most of all heart to it! drop by drop i have filled the well to 100!" or not as i now know the case to be. 

so yesterday, funday sunday was spent unpacking my studio which i had carefully cleared away {due to upcoming pilgrimage in the world} & brought the number from 96 to 102.

i believe this is a good lesson in intuition & listening to it because just before i declared my 100, something popped up & said, "why not make a few more just incase?"

meanwhile 96 or 102, i continue to spend a little time each day with my pocket prayerlets & reflect on how i felt before i started & how i feel after i finished & where else could i put this process into practice daily.

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my pocket prayerlets distracted me {in a good way} from 'a flood of nostalgia {two by two}' i started earlier this year.

 i didn't know i had pocket prayerlet categories till now, but as i am nearing 95 of them, they seem to have created their own little category homes where they fit in.
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​some wide, some tall, some small & some smaller still.

a handful of pocket prayerlet covers i am particularly fond of in the 'wide' pocket category.

around the time i closed the curious ATELIER i was already dabbling in papier~mâché although it was limited to building up layers of old papers upon cardboard structures i had made from old discarded boxes. 

​at the beginning of 2021 i set about cataloguing a whole year of making them. each month i would make one Bhakti Box & within the pages of a book record the process, from inspiration, words, excerpts, materials & more, how they came into Being.

​here is just a sprinkling of some i made that year & others since. this may turn into a little series on my Bhakti Boxes so friday i will continue to share more about them & some of the grander ones.

i like the idea of recording them here & sharing them for the first time in all their wonky handmade devotional wonder.

{*Bhakti is Sanskrit for loving devotion}

since switching out patching fabrics to patching papers a few years ago, i have found myself down the artist book/zine/altered {altared as in my case} book making hole for quite some time. 

i like the fact that when i am on the road, it is possible to take something this small along for the ride. although i have greatly enjoyed making on a larger scale in recent times, there is something quite delightful to making smaller & perhaps en masse. 

the 100 day project rolls around this time of year, & i have never felt the call to take part but this year happenstance came a calling & as i was immersed in pocket prayerlet making, i threw caution to the wind & joined in. 

but as is always the way with me, i sort of changed things up.

firstly i have not posted 'a picture a day' on social media & as i am heading out of the temple into the world again in April {& despite me saying these booklets are easy to take on the road to make}, i do not think i wish to add weight to my rucksack with art supplies.

that is all to say, the 100 days goes somewhere into May or beyond is my guess & i am going to change it up a little by saying i am making them till i have a 100 or thereabouts. by that i mean, i make as many as time allows each day until i have 100 or i embark on my next pilgrimage.

 if you would like to see how i make them from a single sheet of paper, i have stepped into the unknown, rigged up an overhead camera & made a little-ish film of how to go about it.

considering it is several folds & one snip it is extraordinary how long i took to show how to make it. i like to think it is because i was being mindful of going slow so you could join in at the same time. 

so without further a do...

i have so much to show but not a lot to say, some days are like that, more often than not there are no words. so today i thought i would just start & see what spills forth onto the paper screen.

back in the Fall i signed up for pottery classes on the island, hand~building basics to be precise. it has been over 3 decades since i sat with clay & for a while now i have felt the pull. it was 4 weeks of learning the techniques & 2 weeks of learning {some} glazing. i told myself each week i would make something & then move on, not get caught up in trying to make it perfect, it was more about learning the 'hows & whats' rather than seeking an outcome.

​that being said, i did have in my head & my heart a little wishlist of possibilities.

most of my wishes were around the idea of making it feel & look hand~built {not difficult to achieve with my rusty dusty ways} & also usable. 

it was the glazing side of things which caused me to start praying to the kiln gods and goddesses for i had quite suddenly become attached to my little wonky makes & feared my rather thick & clumsy glaze was going to cover up the delightful mark making patterns.

clearly all that praying paid off because when i saw my little finished pottery pieces i declared it was a one true miracle. i did not get down on my knees to give thanks despite wishing to, deciding folks in the clay center might find it distracting, causing mishaps on the wheel to happen etc. so i imagined it instead which i think counts.

miracle #1: they had all survived not one but two firings. including handles staying on even if the mugs 'ate' their bottoms.
miracle #2: they had not stuck to the kiln shelf causing untold woes to all the other students & clay center folks.
miracle #3: the copper oxide did what i hoped it would do & as anyone watching The Great British Pottery Throw Down will know, oxides are unpredictable. it's actually one of the biggest takeaways i have learnt from just watching others on that show.
miracle #4: i love them so much that despite creating almost a tea set for two, i am having to work up to actually letting anyone use them such is their precious miraculousness & my distrust in anyone caring for them quite as much as i do. 
miracle #5: i am making scones this afternoon {that is a stand alone miracle of its self}
miracle #6: i may or may not christen my tea plate to celebrate the miracle of an edible {still to be announced} scone, lemon no less, & the new moon.

that is quite a remarkable amount of words for someone who declared she had nothing to say.
​another miracle.