Shortages

In the midst of this Covid 19 Virus that has us all staying home.   All over the world.

I'm down to a pound of Super Sculpey!    Eek!    Worse then seeing a mouse!

This is the beige clay I use, like a canvas, to sculpt my seashells and animals from.   I'm a lot like Goldie Locks with the potage, chairs and beds.

One too hot, one too cold.   One too big, one too small.   One too hard, one too soft.

I can't put it into words.   Except to say.    I know when it's just right!   The clay not too soft, not too hard.  Where it feels just right for my fingers to pull/pinch the animals into being.   And for the shells too.   If my clay is too hard the colors won't roll well together.  And if it's too soft, the pigmented clay mixes too easily.

It's like having a well-tuned violin. My fingers seem to be like the ears of my Grandpa Vogt who was piano tuner because he had a perfect ear.  Seems as if my fingers have a perfect touch.  At least for this clay.

I've been putting off ordering my usual 24 pound box.   Sinking $200 again into my art that still is not paying for itself.  I placed an order two days ago on line with the company I've always worked with.   It went through.  So I felt maybe I was in luck.

But yesterday I got this email from them.   Stocked, yet I expecting this.

"Annie-Unfortunatly, we sold out of the 24lb Super Sculpey before your order came through."

I realize I'm not the only little girl in the woods needing her clay to be  just right!

I feel I like a painter with lots of colored pigment, brushes ready to go.   Ready to express again through my fingers my beloved snails and animals.   But with only a couple of tiny canvases left to paint upon.

We artists are like chefs. We have our favorite pots and pans, knives, whisks and bowls.   We get thrown off. I know I am right now.

I can make light of this. But I would be devastated if I were never to be able to get anymore of this particular clay.  It is my companion. A part of me. And I also am part of it.

I need to put a positive spin into this blog. For myself and each of you who will read it.   We need to have hope.

I have lots of white base clay and lots of pigmented blocks of clay.   Black, brown, gold, coral, leaf green, yellow, lime, ballerina pink.  I could go on and on.  But you get the idea.   I'm not out of clay entirely.

So necessity has me in a new place.  To try some new things.   Deprived for now of my companion.