Kiddush
phil raskin
About phil raskin
A new begining. Fire and earth, water and mud. These are the beginnings of our vessels.I have been dreaming of clay works since my seven-year-old summer at the J.C.C. camp Tikvah in Aitkin MN. There I was introduced to a potter’s wheel and the plasticity of clay. From there it was in high school that I was able to start daily practicing the craft. Soon I had equipment and spent hours refining and learning the skills. Several patient teachers later and I was making a full time advocation of ceramics. Now My work is mostly in porcelain, though I find comfort and inspiration in most any clay and ceramic processes. To this day I am considering new forms both sacred and mundane. To hold a favorite coffee mug is a ritual object pottery clay moment. To hold a vessel and call on our souls to remember a time of sanctity is the glue that binds the generations together. May it be a mezzuzah, dreidle, seder plate or other Jewish ritual object, I am happy to make a vessel or object for you. Customized with a name or date or image you might want for your special occasion or holiday. Please contact me for pricing and timing.
About Kiddush
A new beginning. At sixty years old, as it is said, the check engine light will come on. What once were minor inconveniences become stronger signals that it’s time to start a new direction. I have been somewhat dormant in the field of ceramics for almost twenty years. Now I find myself being drawn back into it with a new found, much deeper desire to bring together the previously separate experiences. This advances the mission of creative idea exploration and then formation of the corporeal by the interplay of years of experience with a new possibility found in the energy of pursuing a mostly if not completely unexplored marriage of Jewish ritual objects and Prairie or Arts and Crafts styles. To continue creativity is the dear core of an artist’s purpose. By engaging in the fabric threads of life and ceramics it advances the escapades of this artists life.Shmita is the return of the new to the old. I return with new ideas and forms to celebrate the old. The old brings life into the new. Children are born of experience and love. Bringing the sacred from the profane is an old process. Clay is an old medium, new is the herald of tomorrow. We turn each day to the wisdom experience brings.
