Finished herons

Herons are out of the kiln and perched on #8-32 threaded zinc-coated steel legs. I have a few things to revise for the next round, but I'm happy with how these turned out. They were sponge-glazed; spray-glazing will save time when I make more, but these birds were too tippy for that. (Note to self: legs and tail need to make a stable tripod!)

In an interesting reminder that physics is always at play in pottery, the bird necks twisted clockwise during firing. Given that the wheel was spinning counter-clockwise, the frictional force utilized to narrow the necks was clockwise--meaning the necks twisted further when fired, rather than untwisting. Someone told me years ago that teapot spouts can untwist when fired, so here's proof that that's actually a myth: they twist more, not less. (I get around the issue with teapot spouts by pulling the spouts in rather than collaring them in, but heron necks are a little too long for that.)

Bird retrospective

In 2007, we took a trip to Vancouver Island. While we were waiting for the ferry in Port Angeles, Washington, we admired the huge cormorant statues by Duncan Yves McKiernan, and I wondered if I could make small versions of those elegant forms on the pottery wheel. When we got home, I gave it a try. I was five years into clay, and still pretty new to altering thrown forms. I ended up with a bunch of phallic abstract birds that looked like this:

(This was also before I learned how to photograph my work, and I thought a blue tablecloth would make a satisfactory backdrop for a formal shot. Oof.)

In the intervening years, I have made hundreds of chickens...

...and hundreds of penguins,...

...and learned a ton about clay and design and googly eyes.

Today I recalled those not-so-long-necked wheel-thrown-and-altered cormorants of yore, drew upon everything I've learned in the meantime about making wheel-thrown-and-altered chickens and penguins, and came up with a pair of dinosaurish herons.

These birds are standing on chopstick legs, but I'm thinking once they're fired, I'll make metal legs for them--or bribe my beloved engineer to make metal legs for them--and stick them in the garden.

More sunrise eye candy from Ocracoke

Belated Ocracoke images from last week... My favorite thing to do on Ocracoke is to walk, pre-dawn, on a path through the wetlands to the beach to watch the sunrise. On Thursday morning, that effort was rewarded with an unexpected spectacle involving thousands of cormorants and other birds flying over from the sound side and spending a good twenty minutes zipping northward along the water's edge. We returned to the beach Friday morning, hoping for a repeat performance. The cormorants were nowhere to be seen, but pelicans were more abundant than they had been the morning before--or perhaps their numbers were easier to see without all the cormorant chaos. On Saturday, we saw fewer birds, and a squall line blew in just in time to obliterate the sunrise--but the dolphins were out in force. A new treat each day. Photos and videos below.

Thursday a.m.:

Friday a.m.:

Orion and Canis Major

Crescent moon and Venus

Clouds heading our way

Pre-sunrise--fog starting to roll in...

...but we could still see the moon.

No more sun. It went from foggy...

...to foggier...

Then the sun rose over the clouds, and the fog dissipated.

Pelicans were abundant

Saturday a.m.:

Apparently we walked faster, as we arrived with 40 minutes to spare...

See that dark line of clouds to the left on the horizon?

Cold, wet weather blew in impressively quickly.

Goodbye, hint of impending sunrise...

On the bright side, E finally had enough wind to fly a kite before lunch...

Thanksgiving morning on Ocracoke

Penguins

I did finally get outside this afternoon. I learned that 52^oF is really not all that cold for throwing, especially with a container of hot water from the kitchen. I threw a colony of penguins.

S thought they might benefit from eyeballs.

E informed me that only Emperor penguins are this tall. "Most penguins are only about"--he held his index finger and thumb about two centimeters apart--"this tall. You know that, right?" He knows such things because he had a unit on penguins in Kindergarten and first grade, and probably second grade too. Penguins were very popular at his elementary school; apparently aspect ratios were not as interesting. (For the record, he knows real Emperor penguins are more than 4 inches tall.)

Herons and more tulip private parts

We had a friend in town yesterday with a bit of free time in the afternoon, so we took him to Duke Gardens. I was at the gardens about two weeks ago with some other friends, and we had the surprising privilege of watching a heron stab and devour a fish from the koi pond. We saw a heron yesterday too, and moments after I aimed my camera at it, in the blink of an eye, it flew into the water and snarfed down a fish. So to all you herons out there reading this, Duke Gardens is the place to be right now.

Catch it

Silence it

Swallow it

 

 

 

Because I'm in the habit, I couldn't resist taking more photos of tulip private parts. Seems like a pollinator would have to be pretty obtuse not to hone in on these things.

We have lots of pollen at home too, judging by the cat's head.