Project Highlight: 2010 Vivi Cookie Jar

In 2010, I was finishing up my last undergraduate college semester while TJ was finishing up his last two semesters in grad school. As an elective, I opted to take intro to ceramics as I had a free elective credit to fill. Earlier in my college career, I had decided to drop my art minor as the extra expense of all the supplies was putting a strain on my budget. I still desired to do artistic things, and after a nasty break up in my final winter semester, I decided to do something I really wanted to do and was entirely for myself.

At the beginning of my final spring semester, TJ and I had re-established our romantic relationship and spent quite a bit of time talking about our interests and likes. When I completed all my required work for my ceramics class, I was given the opportunity to make an personal piece using the tools and materials provided by the class. So, as a graduation gift for TJ, I opted to make a cookie jar. Now, it wasn't just any cookie jar, it was a cookie jar shaped like Vivi, his favorite character from the Final Fantasy IX game. Sadly, I wasn't able to surprise him with it as I needed to borrow one of his Vivi statuettes to use as a reference.

I did my best to work through sculpting the project and spent many hours ensuring the hat didn't collapse on itself. During the initial firing stage for one of my previous projects, someone else's project had exploded due to an air bubble in the clay, and my work had been damaged, and I now use it as a door stop as it couldn't fulfill it's original purpose. So when my precious cookie jar went into the first firing, I was so nervous something was going to happen that I constantly was checking back in on the shelves to see when it came out. Thankfully it came out okay, and I was able to do the final glaze and firing.

When finished, I couldn't figure out what to do for a staff as I didn't plan for that part of the project, so I eventually just used a disposable chopstick as the wizard's staff.

In the end, TJ loved the cookie jar and it has survived all this time, through several moves and our two kids. It no longer gets used as a cookie jar, but is instead a place for TJ to stash his spare cables and miscellaneous items from his desk. It lives on a shelf of our bookcases along with his other video game related figures. I think that's the best thing for it though. It was tough to make and I somewhat miss the ceramic making process, but maybe someday I'll get back into the ceramics studio.

Cheers!

Jessamyn