A celebration by chance

It's not often one finds
occasion or opportunity
to use the word serendipity:

The faculty or phenomenon
of finding valuable or agreeable
things not sought for

But yesterday, after pouring over
tutorials, gathering materials,
and waiting for the weather to
cooperate, I found myself outdoors
pressing the fleeting purples,
greens, and yellows of summer's
early bloomers into clay, 
transforming one form of
beauty into another.

On the cusp of the 
summer solstice.

A serendipitous celebration
of the change in season.
 

Of course, reading and research take you only so far. The only way to really know or understand how to do something is to do it.

While I love the look of a botanical imprint cast, I wasn't prepared for how difficult it was going to be to roll out and flatten a chunk of clay. It takes more than a bit of elbow grease and patience.

This form of art means hoisting clay and lugging buckets of water, mixed with the gentle stir and pour of plaster.

Lessons learned ... and like the imprint, permanently fixed in the how-to library of my mind.