Sacred Things for Sacred Words

6 December 2024

This piece made me smile, from its inception to its completion.

I was inspired to make a ceramic scroll carrier while watching Rings of Power, a TV show set in JRR Tolkien’s Middle Earth, alongside my dear friend and literarily-inclined housemate Leah.

It took me hours to carve every line in the tessellated Ginko leaf surface design and I chuckled at this piece’s re-imagination of the trendy hip pack. 

And the night when I finished the piece, the process of playing with fasteners and leather and a Japanese screw punch had me grinning from ear to ear. “It works! It works!” was all I could think.

As I worked, I got to thinking of sacred texts and how people have preserved precious words throughout history. There are gorgeous examples of scroll holders made in Tibet or in the Ancient Near East for the purpose of displaying religious texts and often marriage certificates, too.

In our present age, where most of our ABCs will only ever exist as pixels on a lit screen, I like this ornate affirmation of the power of words that commit one to another. Here is a physical object that celebrates beautiful words declaring two people’s mutual intentions to work towards flourishing. The binding of leather and chain to ceramic serves as a lovely illustration of the binding work of words. To bind and to bind up — there is love and belonging, promise and mending here.

My friendship with Leah — though not a marriage — is a sacred relationship in which we daily take care and joy. As a nod to this great good in my life, I have included a fair copy of Gwendolyn Brooks’ exquisite poem “Friend” in this scroll carrier. I borrowed her phrase “hale and whole” for the title of this piece, which will hang in the Harrison Gallery this month at the Harrison Center for the Arts in Indianapolis. I invite you to go check it out in-person!

“Hale and Whole”

Ceramic, leather, metal

7.5”x2.25” (meant to fit A5 paper or 5”x7” paper)

$225