Here is my first blog post ever! It is about how I felt and what I am doing about that horrible day this month in at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, CT.

When I woke up on that day to watch my morning news for a little bit. I was in shock, and one of the few times i have ever wept watching a newscast.

I have a 5 year old daughter in school right now, and see the beautiful shiny little faces of my daughter’s classmates every day when I drop her off at school. The most wretched evil I would not have ever imagined destroyed many people’s lives that day.

I decided this day that i was going to do something about it. I wanted to take all that built up anger, grief, and despair I had and turn it the other way. To take that energy and use it to help heal. I truly believe the Lord wanted me to do this. I wanted to use my talents in pottery to make this happen.

I have made many custom vases in my day. I put ceramic photo decals on a vase for people for wedding, anniversaries, birthdays, and memorials. I have sold many, but also have given them away to people to help with a loved one’s loss.

I decided to make 27 vases. 26 for all of the victims in that school’s families, and 1 for the school or city hall. 26 of these vases are going to have the individual victims faces on them, and the one for the school or city is going to have all 26 victim’s pictures on them in a photo collage.

I have prayed on each ball of clay when I throw it on the wheel head. I pray that will find the right home, and that it will help heal. I honestly feel like I have been closer to God out in my shed than ever. I will think about all kinds of things making them. How cold my shop is being one of them, LOL!

I have 12 vases now made for this project. Unfortunately I ran out of clay. The local clay supplier is closed for the holidays and will open on Jan 2nd.

I plan on finishing these vases pretty fast once I get more clay. This is what brings up my next task. Finding the right pictures. I can find some good one on google, but would be really awesome if I could get the families to send me one that they would like.

So many things I hope to figure out in the next couple of weeks before I need to finish these. If anyone has any idea of how I could improve this project, please let me know. I could really use the input anyone has!

I will keep everyone posted on any progress I have made.  It is about time I use this website that I need to put more time into, and that time is now!