Greetings From Louisiana

It is such a complete ‘change of venue’ to be working in Louisiana for a couple of weeks. I was greeted the first day by my little alligator friend, Bambino. He’s grown some since I last saw him but he’s still a cute little guy. Notice how long his legs are! There is a fish that’s about 5 inches long that seems to swim with him. Maybe the two of them are the inspiration for another children’s story? This one could be set underwater.

Alvin, our bigger gator, was a little aggressive on our first day together. I had to take a few steps back a couple of times as he surged toward me in the pond acting like he was going to launch himself onto the shore. Luckily, he was just posturing to let me know I was in his territory and we worked out a friendly compromise pretty quickly.

The studio is full of treasures I’ve stock piled that are waiting to be used so it was easy, and lots of fun, to get right to work. I started making a selection of pieces that I’ll try to take back to California – luckily, I came with a mostly empty suitcase this time.

One piece in particular caught my attention, first for its beautiful shape and then for the little hole drilled in the bottom of the pitcher. I’m not sure why someone did that but it immediately made me think of using it as a totem pole base.

I’ve been working hard on creating my “Building Totems” online workshop back home so maybe I just had totems on the brain.

In honor of being in Louisiana I decided to make it into a water animal story with each character escaping being eaten by the one below. It begins with an octopus followed by a fish and finally a frog. I think it is quite playful and will be a delightful mini totem when it’s finished. Here’s a little video showing you my progress.
https://youtu.be/WaxjvHI9SNc

One never knows when inspiration will strike.

I hope I can get the pieces at least through the first firing before I have to head home. It will be one more project for the suitcase!

What has a vacation inspired you to do?