Spooling Ceramics

I recently found the work of Mara Skujeniece, a dutch ceramic artist who's slip-cast spool vases first caught my eye on Zilu, a European version of Etsy.  I was also pretty smitten with her faceted vases in lovely shades of grey!

I know there is a huge trend in ceramics these days to slip-cast found objects and there are some that I find more interesting than others.  I guess I'm more interested in the original object not being a vessel form to begin with.  I find the translation into porcelain a whole lot more engaging as I re-think the origin and function of that form.  In any case, I do really love the clever translation of spools of string into a vase.  Any thoughts?

On another front, I also just found the blog Craft Hope, a blog dedicated to raising funds via sales of hand-made objects on their Etsy shop.  It's such a great concept and so far $27 000 has been raised for Haiti!  Please do have a look at their shop and consider buying as all money raised will be donated to Doctors Without Borders for Haiti.

I recently re-kindled my friendship with a child-hood friend who's father is Haitian.  My friend's parents were in Haiti visiting his family during the Earthquake, and although they are alright, efforts are now being made to get them home along with finishing paperwork for more of her cousins and relatives to come to Canada.  It is truly a dire situation out there.  My best hope and prayers go out...