NOTE: Many of you have asked about the origin of The Blue Bottle Tree. Here’s the story. I wrote this waaaay back in 2012. I’d been working with polymer clay for many years, but the full life of a wife and mother meant that creativity had not been a priority for years. This is when everything changed.

In mere weeks my oldest child leaves home. For many years I have both dreamed about and feared this time. I’m not so much eager for him to go, but I am eager to inherit his bedroom.

Like most mothers, I have given up my own interests and space as my children needed more and more. Currently, my art supplies and endless plastic containers of materials are stacked in my bedroom, in the storage shed, and in the garage. I have tried to carve my own creative space in the bedroom but sadly, clothes and cats and paperwork continuously cover my feeble attempts to create. So his room will once again become my studio and all the creative activities I have back-burnered for decades can finally be brought out.

So for the last several weeks I have been busy dreaming. I am excited about finally having a place of my own. But I’m equally aware that I’m likely distracting myself from his departure. It’s a transition which brings a whole slew of emotions which I’m keeping nicely packaged in a little box placed somewhere to the left of my heart, way back inside my chest.

I have decided to call my new studio The Blue Bottle Tree. Why? Because years ago when my kids were little and I had no time or space or energy to create anything, I was able to create a bottle tree in my backyard. That bottle tree became a symbol of my creative force. It consistently reminded me that I have a creative soul that would be able to come out one day when the coast was clear and the kids were busy with their own lives.

So this is the beginning. I’m excited about all that is to come. I will once again have my own space to create. And I vow to dedicate my time and efforts to letting my creative self come out and play.