Extreme Knitting Redhead: Potty about Owls

Friday, November 23, 2012

Potty about Owls

I've finished the surface decoration on my owl and I'm quite pleased with how he looks so far.

Owl front

Owl back

Owl side

He's taking an age to dry out though so he won't get fired until next week then I've got to glaze him so there's a lot can go wrong yet!

Just look at this stump - doesn't it look like an owl's face? It's part of an old stump at the end of a hedge. We see it every day but yesterday I saw it with fresh eyes.

Owl stump

In other pottery news, here is a bowl I've just finished. It was made using a method called 'coiling' and I've carved a pattern into the surface.

Side view

View from above

The other thing I had fun making was this leaf dish. I used a leaf from our beautiful Fatsia Japonica bush. This is a descendent of a plant we had in our very first home and each time we've moved house I've taken a cutting with us. I love its architectural shape, it's evergreen with beautiful glossy green leaves and it has beautiful flowers in October/November followed by berries in the winter.

Fatsia Japonica

Delicate flowers

I pressed a leaf into the clay then cut around it. I then scratched into the clay to emphasise the lines of the veins.

Leaf dish

The pot and the dish went into the kiln on Wednesday so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they'll come out OK so I can glaze them next week. There are only 2 more pottery lessons to go and I've got so much to do.

Sadly I won't be able to continue with the next term as the weather often gets too bad to be trekking out at night. I'd really like to go back later next year though as I really enjoy working with clay, although it does irritate the arthritis in my hands

Knitting and crochet bits

Christmas knitting continues apace. Crochet snowflakes are multiplying. My woven crochet blankie is finished and just needs his fringe trimming then I can wash it and store it away until summer (which seems an awful way off at the moment!).

I'll take photos of the finished blankie in the next few days. It was a very simple yet effective technique. The only reason it's taken me forever to complete the weaving is that I can't bend over for very long before my neck hurts (the result of a car crash nearly 3 years ago).

I'm already plotting another blankie project using some of my plentiful supply of Rowan Summer Tweed................will it be knitted or crocheted? Don't know yet!

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Mum's Story

In 1997 my mother, then aged 81, had a series of minor strokes. Shortly after that we started to notice behavioural changes notably memory loss and confusion over everyday items. We thought it was just old age finally catching up with her. Then she started wandering and had violent mood swings. Although she already lived with us it became obvious that she couldn't be left alone for long and so I left my job to care for her. The next few years saw a gradual decline into the blackness that is 'vascular dementia'. My normally placid mum became violent and aggressive. She had psychotic incidents where she would see imaginary people (children hiding in her wardrobe, Russians sitting on the stairs, women stealing her clothes) and she would shout at them and sometimes throw things too. She was so convincing that we used to go and check that there wasn't anyone there! When my sister died mum did not know who Judy was or that she was her daughter. There came a point when I suddenly realised she no longer knew that I was her daughter and this was a terrible time for me. In the last 2 years that she lived with us, life for us all became almost unbearable as she needed 24 hour care - she couldn't be left alone at all because she would either wander off or hurt herself, she never slept for more than 30 minutes at a time during the night, she became incontinent and incapable of doing anything for herself. Finally my husband and I realised that we could no longer provide her with the care that she needed and she went to live in a special care home where the team did a splendid job caring for her in the last few months of her life. There she lived a zombified existence unaware of who she was, what she was or where she was. It was heartbreaking. She died in March 2005, the day after her 89th birthday.

Thank you for taking the time to read mum's story and I hope you'll dig deep and sponsor me using the link below to help find a way of beating this destructive disease.