the dirt

RSS feed

    urchin inspiration

    Have you seen the video of where my inspiration for making porcelain urchins came from?

    This video was taken at Davenport Landing in California, a favorite spot of mine and home to millions of purple urchins at low tide. Can you believe, they actually bite away at the rock with their teeth and slowly sculpt their protected home around them?

    Purple urchins are beautiful and mesmerizing to watch but they have also been multiplying like crazy in recent years and devouring the kelp beds off the California coast at an unstable rate. This is due to sea star wasting disease, as the sea stars are the main predator of urchins. The urchins have thrived and they can eat up a kelp forest in no time. The kelp forests are the food source and habitat for hundreds of other marine creatures. The good news is that the roe inside the urchins is delicious and a Japanese delicacy called uni, so if you see some purple urchins, don’t be afraid to crack them open and eat up the golden roe, you can help save the kelp beds and get a fancy meal out of it!

    If you want to take a piece of the ocean home with you, pieces from this series are available in the online shop.

    just a dash of water

    We had our first big storm of hurricane season come through and while it was less intense than predicted for our area, it did bring with it a good amount of rain. If you look across our desert right now, it appears dead and brown, but if you look closer at the branches, you’ll see the tiny bits of growth starting.

    I love how opportunistic the desert is, creating the prettiest, stain glass windows of green leaves with the smallest amount of water. Also notice the very sharp thorns protecting those tiny leaves from being gobbled up. This is just the start, soon the whole desert will look lush and verdant.

    The image on the far left, above is a Palo Adan tree, similar to an Ocotillo they are thorned and produce small leaves and bright red flowers that the hummingbirds love. The middle image is a Torote tree which grows prolifically here and has thick trucks with papery bark, small fan shaped leaves and produces purple berries that the birds enjoy. The image on the right, I’m almost positive is a wild cape plum, it has a fleshy trunk and branches and produces an edible fruit, that is supposed to be delicious.

    Awesome Foundation Summer Winners

    Congratulations to the June, July + August winners of the Santa Cruz Awesome Foundation!

    Awesome Foundation Summer Winners | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture
    Awesome Foundation Summer Winners | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture
    Awesome Foundation Summer Winners | the dirt | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture


    In June, Alex Rocha-Alvarez won for her project Photography Workshops for Farmworker Youth which will empower youth to capture the essence of their own homes through photography. Students will learn basic photography skills such as understanding composition, lighting, focus, and exposure, but the focus will be on encouraging them to find special parts of their community that they want to capture and convey to others.

    July’s winner was Chris Garcia with Literature for Laundrymats, a project aiming to fill a void by presenting material of literary merit to those waiting for their clothes to dry. Designed to be read in portions, the project has already began to get submissions and has designed a plan to deliver the zine to laundry facilities around Santa Cruz county.

    And in August, we awarded Elizabeth Yznaga for Senior-focused CPR/AED Instruction, which will fund upgraded equipment and allow for new weekly AED mini workshops at the Santa Cruz Community Farmer’s Markets specifically targeting the education of seniors.

    Check out past projects here…

    We love reviewing these amazing, creative ideas – keep them coming Santa Cruz! $1000 micro-grants are given out monthly. Got an Awesome idea that needs a little funding? Pitch it here!

    Want to join the Santa Cruz Awesome Foundation Team? Email us here!

    shop the shop

    Urchin + Medusa in Bell Jar | Shop | Jenni Ward ceramic sculpture

    There are only a few items left in the online shop!

    A selection of porcelain Medusas and Urchins in Bell Jars and colorful Trinket Necklaces are available in the online shop. Pieces from these series will not be available for sale in the US again, so grab them before it’s too late!

    Online Class & Ebooks are also available!

    SHOP NOW

    please note: all physical works ship from california and virtual products will be emailed directly

    It’s been a minute…

    I’ve rarely taken a hiatus from writing in The Dirt since starting it way, way back in January of 2015, but sometimes a break is good and I also don’t like to clog up inboxes with nada, so here we are two months later. Thank you to all of you who reached out concerned when you noticed that The Dirt wasn’t showing up – it’s always nice to know people are out there in cyberspace reading this!

    To catch you up, it’s been a hot and dusty summer here in the desert. Most of my time has been devoted to the dogs these days since we officially adopted Cazadora, who then promptly needed surgery but she’s recovered and is doing great. Our morning walks on an empty beach are the highlight of the dogs days and with the water warming up, we jump in whenever we can. While we are missing the whales of winter, instead, the sea turtles have been coming up on the beach to nest, schools of rays have been swimming so close in shore that you can see them in the breaking waves and I even found paper nautilus shells washed up on the beach. Keeping an eye out for rattlesnakes and super weird bugs is also a highlight of summer. As my neighbor says, it’s not for the feint of heart but the adventure keeps you on your toes and the inspiration from nature is everywhere. Now, we hope to get through the September rain storms without issues and without hurricanes, while quenching the thirsty desert!

    It’s been hard to make a lot of progress on projects because of the heat, but we have plugged away at a few things. I finished tiling the studio sink counter top, which was a bigger endeavor than I anticipated but I love the way it turned out. Little details like getting artwork up on the walls, designing curtains and making shelves from the pallets we used to move our things here, take time to do but make the biggest impact on the finishing touches of the space.

    The most exciting move forward is my generator to run my kilns and Nate’s welder has arrived! It’s a beast of a thing and it needs a lot of planning for hooking up the electrical and the propane to it, but once it’s set up – we will be a fully functional ceramic studio! Wahoo! Nothing is easy or fast when you live off the grid, in the middle of nowhere, but it’s totally worth it.