I remember the ceramic Christmas trees with the plastic lights.
My grandmother, Juanita Zimmerman, had made a couple of them. She was a certified Duncan ceramics instructor. Ceramic trees take me back to another time, and my mother still puts them out at Christmas.
Disclaimer – I do not consider myself a visual artist. I’m not a sculptor or painter although my family is full of them. When my brother suggested doing the Forever Christmas trees at Tire City Potters with my mother, I was in.
Our appointment was for 7 p.m. Nov. 20 at Tire City Potters at 210 10th St.
Last year, my parents, brother and I did the Forever Pumpkins together. It was the last group outing we had with my dad before he passed away in December.
That day was pretty easy – a few cuts in the clay, some glaze and voila – my part was done – easy peasy.
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The Christmas trees were a little more complicated than that. When we arrived, we each had our own clay cone tower. What we could do with that was left to our imagination. I scrolled through photos of trees others had made. One had the boughs on it like the Christmas trees my grandmother had made.
I quickly nixed that idea because Shishir Choksi, who owns Tire City Potters told me that the one in the studio had been made the night before by two people who spent five hours working on the project.
Five hours and lots of patience was something I knew I didn’t have.
I wanted some semblance of boughs though.
At first, Shishir pulled out some extra clay. I must’ve grimaced because he quickly retreated and changed the game plan. He suggested cutting v-shapes into the clay and curling the edges to mimic boughs.
That sounded good to me.
In the meantime, my brother decided to make a fall tree, and my mother decorated hers with ornaments that my brother made.
A side note – if you ever do an art project with a professional artist, leave comparisons at the door and do something totally different. His handmade leaves were amazing, but I can’t make leaves, so I did my own take. I think I was semi-inspired by aluminum trees from the 1950s that I’ve seen photos of. They have a cool vibe, and I could go for that.
My brother did bring his playlist with him.
We had Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings (if you haven’t heard her Christmas album, do yourself a favor and get it) and two other albums that scream Christmas at the Zimmerman house – Amy Grant and Alvin and the Chipmunks. I still want a hula hoop!
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I finally got the hang of stabbing the clay with the blade and pulling out the excess edges so Shishir could roundup the tips of the boughs.
I also made a few spitball-sized clay balls, called them ornaments and attached them to the tree.
Nastassja Heim, who works at Tire City, affixed a star (made by my brother) to the tree’s top and helped me with the cleaning up of stray clay pieces.
Then it was time for color.
I’m not afraid of color. My favorite colors are bold — magenta, turquoise, royal blue and deep purple. With no glaze on the tree, it would turn out to be an ivory shade, which is fine if there are no nicks or marks on the surface of the tree. Well, for one, I have long nails, and I made nicks that weren’t going anywhere.
I didn’t want green. The 1950s’ vintage theme was still in the back of my mind and screamed pink to me. So, Nastasssja took a peachy-colored paint and added some extra red into it to give it more of a pink hue. I was going for more of a cotton candy pink not fuchsia. I know the color will change in the firing process, but the initial color was close to what I wanted.
After sponging the pink onto the tree, I painted the ornaments in turquoise, royal blue and purple. Since turquoise was already out, I painted the base of the tree that color as well.
It will be another two weeks before I see the finished product. The trees have to dry out, have a clear coat and go into a kiln.
As for my brother’s tree, it will be amazing when it’s complete. It will be the ivory shade because he didn’t paint it, but he painted the leaves in varying shades, giving them shadows and highlights — you know, the stuff they teach you in art school. And my mom’s was cute, simple and classic with its bell, star and other ornament shapes, strands of garland and star atop. She decided not to paint the tree, just the ornaments
When finished, you can put a light underneath. Since my boughs are made with cutouts in the clay, a lot of light will emanate from it.
While it wasn’t as easy as the pumpkins to me, it was still fun and relaxing. I lost track of time in the process. I was shocked when we finished around 10:24 p.m.
Shishir said he’s got openings through the second weekend of December for the forever Christmas trees. If they are attempted much later than that, they won’t be ready for Christmas.
Reach Tire City Potters at (706) 294-3871, tcpotters@yahoo.com or the website at tcpotters.com.
Charmain Z. Brackett is the Features Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com
