Ewe Hoo....Sneak Peek

My mother has a friend who collects sheep. Well, not actual sheep but pictures of sheep, statues of sheep..you get my meaning. Anyway, my mother wants to give her friend a tile with sheep as the subject matter but with a pun at its heart. The theme was to be "lamb on the lam" which conjured up a lot of ideas. Meredith, Mark and I kicked around a few ideas: a lamb wearing sunglasses, a lamb standing on top of another lamb, a pair of sheep acting as decoys while a lamb runs away in the distance.

Originally, I was going to draw a picture to give to Meredith and she was going to make the tile. When I started working on the drawing, though, I was having too much fun and so Meredith suggested that I make the tile. Well, I ended up making 20 sheep tiles on the first go around so I think I'll stick with sheep for a while and go back to the girffes later. Here is a sneak peek at the sheep tiles in progress.

Tiles

Here are some of the latest giraffe tiles.

The Safari House

Every time we come back to the Safari House there is another new "critter" of some description. This time it is a taxidermied squirrel who is living in the knothole of the tree trunk which makes up the stair rail in the entry. He is buddied up with some new African birds who are perched just down the tree trunk and next to the monkey cage.

Under the Oaks

Last Saturday we participated in a pottery show and sale in Wake Forest. The weather was perfect, the people were nice and there was free music....what more could you ask for? The giraffe tiles had their second outing and were well received and we sold quite a bit of jewelry, too.

I'm ready for another show!

Of course the chandelier at the Safari House Involves Monkeys!

We're back at the Safari House again to try to finish our projects before December. While we were away, our friend, Greg, sculpted a pair of monkeys holding lanterns. They are hanging above the alligator dining room table. Greg did a masterful job as I think you'll see in these pictures.

Down on the farm

I spent most of last week holding down the fort at Meredith and Mark's while they very kindly took our mother up to see our brother. It was a very peaceful week and I was happy to get out of the rat race for a while and look at trees and fields instead of concrete and telephone poles.

Here's the view from the studio door, with a field of newly mown hay. On the other side of the same door there is a tomato garden. The tomatoes have just about petered out but the stalks make a perfect home for this lovely big spider. I have always called these "writing spiders" but their proper name is Argiope Aurantia. Whatever her name, she is a fine specimen. She caught herself some lunch while I was there.

It was a very quiet week, so I got a lot of tiles glazed and Meredith fired them yesterday. I'm eager to see how they came out. Pictures to come soon.

Back at the Safari House again

Once again, we have a new project at the Safari House. We're staining and varnishing the foot rests for the Alligator table and the bar. The one for the table is completed and installed and we're waiting for Stan to carve the other one.