{"id":551,"date":"2013-06-11T01:09:37","date_gmt":"2013-06-11T05:09:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/dublincultureblog\/?p=551"},"modified":"2013-06-11T01:09:37","modified_gmt":"2013-06-11T05:09:37","slug":"my-grams-teakettle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/dublincultureblog\/2013\/06\/11\/my-grams-teakettle\/","title":{"rendered":"My Gram’s Teakettle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week I got a phone call from my mom delivering some unfortunate news.\u00a0 She was calling to tell me that my grandmother had died earlier that day.\u00a0 I was so upset because I had such a close relationship with my Gram.\u00a0 This was the same grandmother featured in last week’s post, A Kettle and Two Reminders.<\/i><\/p>\n

Let me refresh your memory:\u00a0 a few days into my stay here, I bought a teakettle for my grandmother as a gift from my travels. \u00a0Colm De Ris, A friendly potter\u00a0who creates beautiful artwork, sold it to me.\u00a0 I knew my grandmother would love it and I could not wait to give it to her when I returned home.<\/p>\n

A few days after writing A Kettle and Two Reminders<\/i>\u00a0I received the news of her death.\u00a0 After hanging up the phone from my mom, my face covered in tears and smeared makeup, I grabbed the kettle, put it next to my bed and stared at it.\u00a0 At first, the only thing I could think was how she will never get to see it.\u00a0 That kettle suddenly changed its meaning to me completely.<\/p>\n

Now, the kettle that I bought the other day at an art fair as a souvenir for my grandmother is going to stay with me forever.\u00a0 Part of the reason I wanted to buy this for her was because growing up, and even today, we always would share conversations over a cup of tea on Sunday mornings.\u00a0 Those mornings were some of the best moments with her, and now the teapot will not only be a symbol of my grandmother, but of those mornings<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Celtic symbol, The Triple Spiral, displayed on the kettle has earned a new meaning to me too.\u00a0 Some say each of the three spirals stand for life, death, and rebirth and how they are all connected.\u00a0 Or in other words, that the spirit never dies.\u00a0 This will remind me of my belief that my Gram is still with me in spirit and that she will always watch over me.\u00a0 Others say that each spiral stands for grandmother, mother, and daughter.\u00a0 How appropriate.\u00a0 The two most important women in my life, are my mom and my gram.<\/p>\n

\"Untitled\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So, you might be wondering how this relates to crafts or even art in general, because I was too, until it came to me a little bit ago.\u00a0 My fingers are typing away and rambling about a kettle and my grandmother, and I realize: this teakettle, that a stranger designed and made with his own two hands, has such a strong meaning to me now.\u00a0 Artists design pieces usually for other purposes, but often artwork builds such a strong personal meaning to the owner.\u00a0 All over the world, people own craftwork, whether it be jewelry, quilts, crocheted blankets, wooden clocks, or pottery, and often these crafts have personal meaning and are passed down through generations. \u00a0I hope my Gram’s teapot is too.<\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week I got a phone call from my mom delivering some unfortunate news.\u00a0 She was calling to tell me that my grandmother had died earlier that day.\u00a0 I was so upset because I had such a close relationship with … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":489,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-folk-artscrafts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/dublincultureblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/dublincultureblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/dublincultureblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/dublincultureblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/489"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/dublincultureblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/dublincultureblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/dublincultureblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/dublincultureblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/dublincultureblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}