On hope

I love Christmas. Is that a cool or uncool thing to say? I love everything about it. Well, not the Christmas songs. I could do without the songs. But everything else, especially the food. I start planning my Christmas menu/s just after Halloween, which is I think seemly. I spend a lot of time thinking about what to bake and then of course, there has to be trial runs just so, you know, things can be tweaked so they are perfect for the big day. I have even gone so far as to make my own mincemeat for the mince pies, with a suitable (sizeable) amount of brandy, after the dearth of raisons, and pretty much anything else, in last year’s shop bought effort. I mean, really, they had the temerity to call it “luxury”. Having sorted the food, and the wine, which also requires a deal of consideration and occasional testing, there is nothing left to be done except to hang the decorations. And present buying. This last one though, the Boyfriend and I have decided to forgo. Instead, each Christmas, we will add a piece to our art collection.

On our wish list this year is a Species Pot by ceramic artist Charlotte Pack, who in her work highlights declining biodiversity across the world. Charlotte creates intricately detailed sculptures of endangered species, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List, sitting atop perfect porcelain pots. Each mammal or bird or reptile is hand built and meticulously carved to recreate fur or feather or scale. When we first saw her work in the flesh at Ceramic Art London, we were captivated by her ability to imbue each creature, even at such a small scale, with its own distinctive personality. The alligators smile their alligator smile; the armadillo curled up tight inside its armour peeks out warily, while the orang-utan with her baby seems resigned and a little sad. On the underside of each pot is the name of the species and its status in the wild – critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable. This is so that you can identity the species, which is important as many of them I’ve never heard of, especially the not quite beautiful ones, and so know little about why they are under threat.

She donates 15% of her profits to support wildlife conservation, which is an additional attraction. We get both to support a talented artist and to help, in some small way, stem the tide of species loss, the scale of which can be seen quite graphically and scarily in her works Fading Away and 100 Elephants in 24 Hours.

Charlotte’s wonderful work gives me some small measure of hope that all is not lost, and reminds me that all of us have it within our power to do something to help, however small and inconsequential we think it. That is, for me, the perfect Christmas present.