Bowls, Bowls, Bowls! And Cotton Bolls!

The cotton fields behind the house are about ready for the pickers - machines now that are like giant vacuum cleaners that suck the cotton up into bins. A lot of the cotton in this part of North Carolina was not very tall this year because of lack of rain, but the cotton in this field is tall. It really looks pretty neat when you look across the fields and see all the white. The dogs enjoy running up and down the rows - all you can see is the tips of their tails.

It was a really good week - the kids at school were great, I had the time to make quite a few pieces of pottery, and even had a chance to sneak back into Virginia for a quick visit. Even if it was only for a few minutes, it was nice to see some good friends in Farmville and drop off a few pots - I should have taken some pictures, but sadly did not.


Besides cotton bolls, I brought home eleven bowls this week and have plans to make some more before the open house on November 8th. I think I am going to focus more on the carved bowls now, especially since the red centered bowls came out so well this week. I had not been using much ash glaze lately, but really like how it accents the carvings on clay.











I watched a video on making whimsical cat jars and, after "playing" too much with a very tall two piece urn (causing it to get completely off-center and collapse), I decided to try the technique for making the cat. It was actually easy and enjoyable to do - not something I would want to do all the time, but a nice change of pace. We'll see how it looks in a couple of weeks after it get a layer of glaze - I'm thinking tenmoku!

A few parting shots of the "stray dogs" - really only Bear is a stray (guess which one he is). The border collie mix was a gift from a parent and the fat brown mix was inherited from our youngest who could not take her with him to Chicago.










Then there is the church dog - Annie of Antioch - who is a true stray. We cannot get near her enough to pet her, but she stays around the church and "lets us" feed her and provide for her. No idea what kind of mix she is - looks like a cross between a chihuahua and a ferret!