A screech owl took refuge from the cold wind on my parent’s porch and dad was able to get several fine photos of him. When I was a teen, we nursed a wounded barred owl and released him back into the wild – he was magnificent! There is a barred owl that stops by regularly and hoots outside my bedroom window early in the evening. I haven’t seen him, but his familiar hoot is like an old friend checking in on me. 
We have almost a foot of snow on the ground. : ) Pooch and I have been out running around in it and following animal tracks. Fun! Cleaned the snow off the car just in case I need to go anywhere – glad I have 4WD! Hope you are all safe and warm and enjoying your day!
7 comments:
Jewels, that owl is so gorgeous.. I want one! How many species of owl do you have in your area? We just have the Morepork (a native species) and the German owl (introduced) around here.... or we did have, I haven't seen them for years unfortunately. It's nice when you have something like an owl dropping by regularly like your early evening barred owl.
I was hoping that you would have more replies to your "why are my plates warping?" question in the post before. Tonya made some interesting and helpful points about careful drying and some ways of doing that.
Plastic coated wire racks are certainly useful for drying both sides of something. I would be wary about drying on a stack of newspaper though. What sort of warping do you have? Are the centers lifting up or going down, or is the whole thing twisting? Are the plates ultra thin in the middle, or does the thickness vary a lot? Are you trying to dry the plate near a heater of some kind (understandable with it being winter!).
Must dash, I have a visitor to the studio.
PS Just sold a jug! Sorry for so many questions in my comment, looks like the 3rd degree..., but I'm just trying to rule out some things that might cause the warping. One thing to keep in mind is that potters who produce lots of plates and platters, cannot use really elaborate methods to assist them to dry flat, there just wouldn't be space or time in a production pottery. That's partly why I would be reluctant to go for things like piles of newspapers and so on. They may very well work, but there is almost certainly a much easier way. I have seen some potters use plastic right over the outside of their drying shelves (to make a sort of tent), and help the pots on the shelves dry more evenly.
Grog may be helpful if the clay is really "tight" and not letting the moisture out easily.
Must away now, lovely to see you potting.
Best Wishes, P.
Hey Jewels! The owl is beautiful! Glad your Dad was able to catch a few pictures of his visitor. I hope that you are enjoying the snow!
Hello Peter! Thank you! The barn owl and the great horned owl are the only other owls I am familiar with in this area.
The centers of the plates are lifting up. I broke a couple of them and found they are slightly thicker in the center. I think this happened when I turned them – perhaps the clay was not dry enough and I pushed it down with the trimming tool. Other than that they are even in thickness and no other warping or cracking is occurring. Thank you for your advice! I appreciate your input!
Congratulations on selling a jug! : )
Hello Tonya! Brandy and I are enjoying the snow. It was beautiful last night and so bright with the light of the moon reflecting off the snow!
Oh wow, I love owls and that one is spectacular. We used to have a great horned owl at our last place that I saw every evening.
I missed the post about plates warping, bur I make sure i dry where I can keep moving the plate to a dry spot, lightly covered for the first week or so and then I use porcelain sand under the plate when firing to allow it to move when it shrinks.
Awesome picture of the owl,such a beautiful bird.
I just knew all this snow would paint your view beautifully.
Enjoy the inforced down time.
Hello Linda! How cool you had a great horned owl visiting you! I haven’t seen one in person yet. Thank you for telling me about the sand under the plates during firing!
Hello neighbor Patti! I can just see you cuddled up on the couch with Mighty and your Kindle. : )
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