Cloudburst Sunrise Barrette
Cloudburst Sunrise Barrette
A porcelain barrette, wheel-thrown for durability and for a natural arch. Trimmed/carved slightly for lightness. Sky and trees painted by hand with an underglaze, then fired to Cone 6.
Barrette clasp reads “Made in France,” from the original French factory, which went out of business. (I stocked up a decade ago.) French barrettes somehow don’t snag as much in one’s hair.
This is a large barrette, so it might require a ponytail, or braids, or other structure to hold it. Clip made for fine to moderate hair.
3.5 × 1.25 x .75 inches, approx.
2024
Barrettes! Why barrettes? I’ve been wearing barrettes in my hair since my Intro to Clay class in college. I’d worn my hair long since I was a teenager, and when I would wear it back in a braid in my first pottery class there was still a good chance that a stray hair could catch a pot and slice off the top of, say, a tall stacked vase— true story. After I destroyed a vase or two on the wheel I started wrapping my hair around my head and securing it in place with an assortment of vintage barrettes my aunt had given me. I liked the style and the idea so much that I started making my own porcelain barrettes when I was working on my 36 Shots of Pikes Peak series from 2014-2017. I painted so many clouds in that series that I developed a new appreciation and obsession with cloudscapes. My head was in the clouds, so I wanted to wear clouds in my hair. These works are the fruits of that obsession.
