just right, sometimes

Well, sometimes things come out just right! And that is how I feel about this little handled bowl.

Sheila Clennell is responsible for my success. She put out a wonderful DVD on making cane handles. Then yesterday when I was trying my hand at the process I encountered real problems. I sent an SOS note to Sheila and she responded immediately and told me what the problem was--I had the wrong material--and how to solve it! I am so pleased with the result that I plan to make a few more before the guild sale in December.

I took the newly handled bowl filled with chocolate-covered-maraschino-cherry chocolate cookies to a dinner gathering honoring a friend of ours visiting from San Francisco. The bowl was the perfect container for the cookies! What fun.

At the dinner party I met a couple, new to San Antonio, who are both potters. Not professional potters but very accomplished potters. Each has had full time occupations as well as raising a family which have limited the time available for clay work. But now 'she' is retired and is spending her free time taking classes at Southwest School of Art and Craft. He is still working so does not have a lot of 'free' time but is already a very accomplished craftsman. They both had the opportunity to study under Charles Counts in the '70s. 'He' was telling me what a philosopher Counts was and how they enjoyed getting into philosophical discussions starting from consideration of the various meanings of 'centering'--building on the same concepts M C Richards developed so well, perhaps. I really enjoyed the encounter and look forward to more ceramic exchanges.