Life in Pieces

This evening I spent a half hour washing scudge off of the treasures that Steven and Co. had unearthed in the last two days. Here's what my kitchen counter looked like when I was done.

(see picture on right - note that the stuff on the triangular rack, in the corner, was not found in the ground... that is my pretty Russian teapot that my sister gave me - also note the trendy avocado green of my stove-top on the right - and feel free to double click to make it big enough to get a closer look at all the shards that I actually washed free of clay-mud WITHOUT CUTTING MYSELF!!!)





As I surveyed the day's handiwork I came to several realizations about life:

• Even brokenness can be beautiful
  
• It's worth it to take the time to clean out the gook
• Hot water on demand is really handy to have
  

....and

• Someday in the future someone might be digging through your junk (or your privy?) and reveling over things you tossed aside as insignificant - so watch out what you ditch (and where you ditch it?)
  
  
  

Here is the infamous head - which I have since discovered is "bisque" and not "porcelain" or "china" because it is unfinished (has a rough texture instead of glazed) I also discovered that it probably had glass eyes at one time and a mohair wig that would have been attached through the two holes in the top of the head.

Also shown is the top of a pretty painted porcelain... perfume bottle? pepper shaker? (what other alliterative word can we ponder...) and something that looks like it was meant to resemble a purple woven basket (also ceramic/porcelain) And the button - don't forget the button - My son has eyes like an eagle!



Here are some bits of plates - if you look at the bigger picture above you will see that we also uncovered half of a cup that matches the brown transferware plate shown in the upper right hand corner. And you can almost see the baby teacup (maybe belonging to the disembodied head?) in the lower left.







Here is a picture of the collection of bottles - I think I have them all accounted for (13?). The tall beer bottle in the back is reported to be the oldest of the whole collection of bottles because of it's pontil mark (the mark made on the bottom of the bottle as it separates from the glass-blowing stick thingy (yes, all very technical terms... go ahead and look them up... especially "thingy")