Trifextra: #60: WORD HEIST

The Scriptorium had been an easy mark.  At the subway, the sack broke, sending words cascading down the stairs to the platform.  People helped. A tiny girl brought three over, in cupped hands… Remember,  Rain, Rebellion.

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My Triextra entry this week… 33 words + 3 more… Rain, Rebellion and Remember.

IT’S RAINING, IT’S POURING… Trifextra #55

“Where are they?”

“Where are what?”  Ethel continued to pick crumbs from the white damask tablecloth, waiting.

“The cats and dogs.”

“Oh holy Mary dear mother of God!  It’s a weather expression, Cheryl”

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The 33 word challenge this week was to provide a 33 word example of hyperbole: exaggeration used for effect

Trifecta Writing Challenge #66 ~ ONE LAST PIECE

Ruth hadn’t glazed a pot in what seemed like, forever.  He always did that part.  Her ‘job’ was the throwing… his, the decorating.  Such awards they had received.  But he wasn’t helping anymore.  She had decided on a simple sgraffito cut through the soft slip.  Selecting a chisel ended bamboo for her doctor, she wondered if she was up for the task.

He loved Temmoku, and though she disliked working in stoneware, it seemed only fitting.  She had found a glaze he made years ago, before she had insisted they use only porcelain.  A near-black, which could break to an iron-red at the right temperature creating a fire-change.  A bit of Titanium added as doctor to the process.  He would be so pleased.

She had decided on just their marks intertwined with his name, as she pushed through the soft clay.  No dates.

There would be comparisons, of course.  Ruth didn’t care.  This was to be her last work.  Her tears would only add to the decoration.

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Trifecta Writing Challenge Week Sixty-Six : Write 33 to 333 words using the third definition of the word: DOCTOR (noun)  a : material added (as to food) to produce a desired effect ~ b : a blade (as of metal) for spreading a coating or scraping a surface

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Temmoku is a type of glaze popular in Japan.  It is used on stoneware and is a very complicated process.   Sgraffito is a form of decoration, scratching through the surface of a glaze to reveal the clay beneath, or another glaze, before firing.

I named her Ruth to honor my first ceramics teacher, Ruth Rippon.  An amazing artist and a wonderful teacher.  Nobody but Ruth would glaze her work.

           

This photo of Ruth in her studio in 1980 was taken by Kurt Fishback.   One of her most famous works is called The Lollies, and can be found in Sacramento.  I don’t know who took the photo of young Ruth above.

Trifecta Writing Challenge #67: Rat Race

RAT RACE… A Nursery Rhyme in 33 words

Life becomes struggle,
To juggle these days.
How did it happen,
I’ve entered a maze.

They say pills have helped,
Ones that they gave.
I’m really not sure,
If I will be saved.

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Trifecta: Week Sixty-Seven

JUGGLE (transitive verb)  Always the third definition… 3: to handle or deal with usually several things (as obligations) at one time so as to satisfy often competing requirements

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I wanted to write something in 33 words, since I missed the recent Trifextra.  I decided to try a poem.  After I wrote it, I didn’t know what form it was, so I consulted the Noted Scandinavian Poet,  Björn Rudberg (who nosed out ‘you know who’, to claim first post this time).  He said it reminded him of a nursery rhyme format, and that was good enough for me… I liked it.  Björn also gave me a few other tips.  If you liked it… Thank you.  If you didn’t… Blame Björn.

Plague Rat Illustration by Emily Veinglory

Trifextra #58: HER HEARTS

HER HEARTS… A 33 word story

I got a call. “I need your help making something.” “Okay, what?”

“A stone heart for Sammie.” “Sammie’s a dog.”

“I know, I want to honor him.” “Okay, then let’s do Buddy too.”

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A dear friend in Sacramento had two miniature poodles.  They were brothers, and had been show dogs… Sammy had died.  She wanted to make memorial stones to place in her garden.  She had studied how to make stepping-stones, so we went to the hardware store and got a bag of cement.  Buddy was still with her, so we got him to ‘autograph’ his stone… he was not pleased about that.  Susan was so happy with them (and we had a lot of cement left over), that we ended up making some more for past and present dogs.  Later, a friend who saw them, asked us to make one for her sister who had loved Betty Boop.  It’s a nice idea, I think… Garden Art with a Meaning.

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Here is the prompt for this weekend’s Triextra Challenge… “We want you to give us a thirty-three word response using the word stone as one of your thirty-three words.  You can use any definition of the word that you’d like, but we are specifically looking for serious, well-conceived entries. “

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p.s.  My friend Betty made a lovely comment below… I thought I would add it to my post…

  “If you are a dog or other animal owner you know that when they are gone they always leave their footprints on your heart.”

Friday Fictioneers: AT THE ART MUSEUM

           AT THE ART MUSEUM… The story of one woman’s obsession in 100 words…

She had reached her Holy Grail. The Baby Rollie trembled in her fingers as she readied to lie on the marble floor.

“Jamie,” Kevin hissed “this is the Guggenheim for Christ’s sake! You can’t just lie down on the floor.”

Entering the art museum, they had worked their way to the exact center of the lobby to get her perfect shot. She had big plans for this picture, and she had to take it with her Rolleiflex. But the viewfinder is on top of the camera, and her photo is straight up.

“Oh the hell with it, I’m doing it!”

GUGGENHEIM
by Jamie Powell Sheppard

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This story is purely fictional, of course, intended to fulfill a photo prompt for Friday Fictioneers.  Any resemblance to anyone named Jamie Powell Sheppard is purely coincidental.  One of my favored possessions is that photograph printed on aluminum… it is spectacular.  Come by my house and I’ll show it to you.  Better yet, visit her website and see all her photographs.

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This week’s FRIDAY FICTIONEERS prompt comes to us from that Canadian Mother, Writer, and Lawyer (so watch out) Jennifer Pendergast.  I could have hugged her when I saw it.

To read other stories by my friends go here… 

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Trifecta Writing Challenge #63: SIR WALTER

“Oh what a tangled path we weave.”

“My, aren’t you the dramatic one! But you’ve got the quote wrong, I don’t think it’s path.”

“What are you talking about, of course it is.  It’s by Shakespeare.”

“Not! I’m gonna look it up.”

“Go right ahead Miss Google-Pants.”

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“Web, Ethel. It’s ‘web’, not ‘path’. I think it was by Sir Walter Scott, not Shakespeare.”

“Think!  Don’t you give me ‘think’, Cheryl, you know damn well who it is, you just looked it up for Christ’s sake!”

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It seems Ethel’s Trifecta woes continue.  This week’s challenge was the third definition of Path..

3a : course, route
b : a way of life, conduct, or though

Here is what Cheryl found at Wikipedia…