Poettery - a cross between Pottery and Poetry!!

I drive past a charity shop most days, and I drive by very slowly so that I can have a good look at what new things they've put outside, and mostly I have just about avoided driving off the road whilst doing so.  Anyway, one day I spotted these two hefty planks of wood, connected one above the other with rope.  I have not the faintest idea what they could have been used for, (swinging shelves??), but I instantly knew what I would use them for.  So I parted with a fiver and they came home with me.

I made lots of letters to form a quote from a favourite poem along with other objects described in the poem, a crab, a shell, a starfish and a smooth round stone.  Below you see the letters all finished with the other pieces still at the bisque stage.  I shuffled them around on the board til I was happy with the composition, took a photo so that I would remember, and then glazed and fired the rest of the pieces.

I decided to paint the board white as the glazed finish always looks brighter on a white background.  When they popped out of the kiln I stuck them to the board and Hey Presto!  This is what it looks like.
   

Complete with original rope through original holes for hanging on a wall in a seaside home.

And the poem?
     

maggie and milly and molly and may

by E E Cummings

maggie and milly and molly and may

went down to the beach (to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang

so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles, and
     

milly befriended a stranded star

whose rays five languid fingers were,

and molly was chased by a horrible thing

which raced sideways while blowing bubbles; and
     

may came home with a smooth round stone

as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)

It's always ourselves we find in the sea.

And what happened to the other board I bought?  It's another Poettery one which I'll show next time.

Have a lovely weekend.

x Cathy