古月

striving towards life by touching dirt queer, chinese-american, survivor, human — my works may reflect these experiences

[oldmoonpottery]

I made myself a couple canvas wareboards and picked up two buckets from the hardware store, which means I've pretty much got all I need for a mini home studio now. I was able to make both of these in my living room.

The can of sardines is a mixing palette. I'm not sure yet if I want to do only a simple white glaze, or add a pop of color on the outer rim.

The other is an organizer for my HRT supplies, with compartments for my syringes, alcohol pads, draw-up + injection needles, and vial. The text I carved into it is seal script: 自心，自性，自由. But I'm going to need a minute to think on how best to translate that into English.

[oldmoonpottery]

Progress of a set of buttons I'm making, to pair with a vest I've knit.

Here's the vest prior to assembly. I don't have good pics of it assembled yet. The design is CARTA by issuelyric Tae. Very, very clever construction btw, highly recommend this designer's patterns.

These buttons are a memorial piece, in a way. The persimmon represents my still-living 外婆, who has a persimmon tree in her garden. I believe her persimmons are actually hachiya, or some other long oblong kind, but I took liberties because… paired with the rabbit, the shape would look very much like a carrot, which I didn't want.

The rabbit represents my 外公, who passed away last year. My most impactful memory of him is of when I was a child arriving to visit their house. While other extended family busied themselves greeting us and bringing in our bags, my grandfather wordlessly walked off. He came back 30 minutes later carrying a plastic bag bulging full with rabbit-shaped buns that he'd bought from the market. I shaped the button to imitate those buns.

On the backs, I've carved my grandparent's given name and birth year. On the persimmon, 1933. On the rabbit, 1934.

The plan is to color these with underglaze, then add a clear glaze on top. If all goes well, they'll be attached to the left side of the vest, just over my heart, along with an i-cord frog knot loop.

[oldmoonpottery]

I took a hand building class at a local ceramics community center last fall. I really, really loved it. The first couple of things I made were this little trinket dish and stag beetle incense holder.

More pics and notes below:

Floating blue on the exterior and amaco lavender mist on the interior. I love how they interacted, kind of makes me think of a blueberry yogurt…

I've had the idea for a stag beetle incense holder for some time. He holds stick incense and the leaf plate can be used alone to hold cone incense.

I love how it came out! I'm considering a reglaze + refire, though. Glazes are mayco matcha gloss and matte, and I'd like to try to bring out more greens, especially on the leaf.

Thanks for looking. Here he is with a sprig of grape hyacinth 🪻