The evolution of a purist...

Hello my darling ladies,(Going out on a limb a bit there re gender! Correct me if I am wrong)I dropped the ball a bit with my daily posts (we could all see that coming) but it was mindful ball dropping. I began enthusiastically at the start of the lockdown but the internet got so bloody noisy so I kept wearing my daily earrings and posted them on @sociallydistantearrings on Instagram but stopped rambling on. The internet version of whispering I hope.I have been walking. A lot. I am very lucky to have a great place to walk within ten paces of my back door. I sometimes spend several hours walking, stopping to meditate or make mandala type thingies. (I only use seeds and pods and leaves as I am mindful of not moving rocks etc.) Then I come home and head to my studio where I have been exploring some new techniques (for me).True confessions time....when I began with polymer in the dim dark depths of time over 30 years ago, I was bit of a purist. I was...a caner.  And only a caner. I prided myself in saying, often in bold capital letters, no paint has been used. You could almost imagine me crossing my fingers in front of my face.  I loved caning with a passion (if you are wondering WTF I am talking about read this). I still do love caning and I make some really really complex canes.But over the last few years I have come to understand (call me a slow learner) that caning is just a tool...a process. It is just one way for me to say what I want to say or to express the idea I want to express. Other fabulously exciting and effective ways include surface treatments like painting, texturing, carving and printing.  I have done all these things for ages but realised the purist still lurked a bit telling me that this was somehow less...pure. Well, I have told the purist to be buggered and am having a heap of fun. The best fun is actually combining the techniques.It was a bit like saying I only cook Nepalese food.  Or I would cook other cuisines but that when I did that, I wasn't really cooking. Now I am exploring a heap of cuisines now and, guess what, it is all cooking!Recently, I've been looking at the work of a number of ceramic artists and I love how they used stamps. I decided to try carving myself some stamps from scrap clay and then set myself the challenge of using these in ten different ways. This been such a good exercise!! I will post more photos in a few days and hope you enjoy seeing how one thing can trigger such fun!