SUNDAY RERUN: Achilles, Cole, DeLila, Tsarina Coffee Pot People

It's Sunday! Time for a Sunday ReRun, a blog party hosted by Chari, over at Happy To Design. Anyone can play, so if you have a favorite blog post or three, click on the Sunday Favorites button in my lefthand sidebar and come join the fun!

This is from August of 2004:

I took pictures of most of the new Coffee Pot People® today. Here are four of them, and I'll put up more tomorrow. I'm hoping to have at least a couple more finished tomorrow, too. The show at Edgefield is next week, and I want to have as many as possible put together. They are so much fun to do, it's hard to believe not everyone does something like this. You know, not exactly this, per se, but something like it, something that lets them laugh at the places the imagination can take you, and feel the satisfaction of seeing it take form. Guess it's one of those "different strokes" things.

First up is Achilles. He used to be a terra cotta cupid that my stepdaughter gave me, but then a tenant's friend pruned our rhody for us, the cupid was sitting at its base, it's head and foot got knocked off, and....my DH was appalled when I showed him what I intended to do with the dear departed's remains, and was afraid Lauree would be upset, but Lauree absolutely cracked up when she saw him. By the way, "Achilles" means "lipless"! I thought that was just a riot, since this little guy is definitely Greek. At least, I think he is.

(Update: I realized later that Achilles Mom had intended to name him Raphael, after the Greek fisherman with whom she'd had a brief, torrid, and entirely imaginary affair, but switched to "Achilles" when she saw her regrettably thin-lipped newborn. Oh, and the DH considers Achilles one of his very most favorite Coffee Pot People!)

Achilles

Next up is Cole, jazz musician, looking cool above the tub of coals he holds. He does still work as a barbecue, and especially likes ribs, since I failed to give him any myself! (Update: Cole later married Isabella M. Goode in a televised ceremony at the Portland Convention Center.)

Cole Webber

Now DeLila is something special. Some folks party, and we all know the sort who would put a lampshade on his/her head and get silly to get attention. Who but DeLila would have thought of wearing one for a skirt, though? This girl really knows how to party, and gets lit pretty much every night. Really. There are candles in the base, and a tea light behind her hat. She's even better at night than she is by day. Come to think of it, I know people like that, too.


DeLila, party girl extraordinaire

Last, for today, is The Tsarina. A crown on her head, and stars in her hair


The Tsarina

FRIDAY FENCE POST #49

It's Friday--Time for a fence!


I spotted that cutie at the Vancouver Recycled Arts Festival this past weekend, and thought it was great. And convenient, too! I mean, when's the last time you saw a fence you could just pick up and carry home?

I loved all the different woods and textures, so naturally I played with them, applying filters until I got a look I liked:


Now, I have to tell you, this week's fence has something of a special meaning to me. It was created by Mike and Barbara Meyer, of Earth Tones. I first met Mike at my first Cracked Pots at Edgefield Show, seven or eight years ago, when Mike bought this little guy:

Achilles

Achilles was one of my first Coffee Pot People, and at that point I really didn't know if anyone would want to buy them. I was just having a great time putting them together, naming them, and writing their bio's. Micheal really loved him, though, and I was thrilled to sell one of my peeps.

That wasn't all, though. A short while later, Tess, one of the organizers of the show, came by. She told me Michael was one of the other artists, and that he'd stopped by the information booth on the way back to his area to show off Achilles. And what Micheal said, Tess told me, was, "I've just bought the best piece of art in this whole show!"

Now, you may look at Achilles and think he's weird, or not exactly your cup of tea, and be 100% justified in your opinion, but what Michael said has stayed with me all these years. It was a seminal moment for me, and moment that validated my work in one single, simple sentence.

I've never told Mike that, even though I get regular updates on Achilles' well-being. (He's in Mike and Barbara's back yard, feeding little birds from the cup on his knee, which makes me mile.) It's just a small, untold, golden moment in my heart that I very much treasure and appreciate.