My latest video: Raku Wine Glasses!
Copy/paste link below to my Etsy homepage. Scroll down to "About" on the left, and enjoy the video!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/Potterybydaina

Trip of a Lifetime

On a recent visit to see our son serving a year as a missionary, we didn't expect to fall in love with the people, the culture, the countryside of Colombia, South America. Click below for a peak at our adventure...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A26yIiDTMrs

Holy Thursday

Gethsemane

After withdrawing about a stone’s throw from them and kneeling, 

he prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, 

take this cup away from me; 

still, not my will but yours be done.”

And to strengthen him an angel from heaven appeared to him.

He was in such agony and he prayed so fervently 

that his sweat became like drops of blood

falling on the ground.

-Luke 22:41-44

So excited to be featured in Phoenix Home & Garden Magazine, Dec 2015 Issue! Click link to see article:

http://www.phgmag.com/digitalEdition/index.html?wv=s%2FPhoenix%2520Home%2520%26%2520Garden%2Ff4be56c204c34b7bbf3cfc5527d37f5a%2FPHG00552%2FTrue%2520SW.html

Styrofoam Bats

Springtime Desert

  Winding past orange-tipped Ocotillos, golden Brittle Bush and Crimson Hedgehogs, I startle a family of quail who scurry across the trail. I gasp, then laugh, continuing my trek along the crown of Sunrise Mountain. A curious sapphire butterfly flutters alongside as my feet find their way over the rocky path... a springtime hike in the foothills of the Sonoran Desert.

   

   Suddenly I am a bystander, watching Christ journey His desert. I ponder those forty days of fasting and prayer amidst the creatures and flora of Judea’s wilderness, marking the beginning of His springtime of suffering. 

   

   We Christians now step into the holiest of times, recalling Jesus’ suffering, death & resurrection. I consider the desert of my own life. I’ve stumbled upon some serious barren spots, hit my share of daunting heights, and met with the relentless heat of the Arizona sun. And yet, I’m reminded of the paradox: beauty and redemption amidst the desolate, grace within the fallow, flowers in the desert.

   Stepping over a lavender blossom poking out from the dust, I recall past murmurs, dismissing this as some dusty, futile emptiness. I smile and inhale the warmth of the sunshine, the sweet fragrance of springtime, the glory of the desert.

Muddied hands wiped clean, I duck out of the studio to drop my youngest at freshmen orientation.  In the passenger seat I spy no longer a little girl, but a young lady smiling back at me, mascara flawlessly applied, blonde tresses smoothly brushed.  Not too many years ago I watched a big yellow bus take her away to kindergarten.  And further back still, I kissed her soft pink cheeks and studied her tiny newborn face from a hospital bed, wondering which sibling she most resembled.  

How did we get to high school? 

Throwing an ordinary lump of clay like I’ve done countless times before, a handful of earth begins its transformation into a unique work of art.  My slippery hands roll gently over each piece; shaping, molding, forming, changing.  Dinner table chatter echoes in my mind... Graduate school & a change in degree... A serious relationship... College graduation... A youngest son’s senior year.  Scripture soon knits its way into my thoughts: “Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand.” 

His tender hands eternally enfold and transform us into His beautiful creations.  The work is never complete.  Privileged have I been, co-creator alongside Him, forming and molding my children through all their stages and years.  

The first day of school arrives at 4:05 A.M.  I am up while the world still sleeps.  I start the coffee and step outside my studio.  Gazing up above me are billions of bright tiny lights twinkling against the still, dark morning: a sky full of tiny lanterns, palpable reminders of God’s everlasting light in my life.  His hands never tire, yet remain gently on each of us, His creations: molding, forming, shaping, changing.