It's the last day of January, the sun is out, the temperature is about 70 degrees, I live in Southern California, and by my blog title you might think I was writing from Fairbanks! But it can get cold here (many or our plants died in a frost) and it does rain in Southern California. Nevertheless, since I last blogged the season has changed twice, Karen had her appendix out while in Seattle, we re-elected a president, Karen and I flew halfway around the world to see a total eclipse of the sun, returned to a house full of family the day before Thanksgiving, saw the house fill again for New Years, had our son home from Australia for the first time in a year, met his girlfriend, took Karen to the hospital twice again, and learned that there is another grandchild on the way (not Sam and his girlfriend).
It has been too cold to work in my studio, and while I do own several space heaters, I have had an energy obsession since we installed Solar Panels. I did however, buy some hand warmers to put in my pockets and bundled up enough to make two pieces. The first piece was eclipse inspired...
We were at sea to see the eclipse and the blues of the sky and ocean were altered and blended by the moon's shadow in a way that cannot be described, interpreted, or even photographed.
After spending a lot of time working on 12" x 12" squares, I decided to get back to my roots and make a round bowl. Sometime before New Year I bought a 20" stainless steel mold. The mold was interesting to me not only because of its diameter, but also because of its depth. I have been wanting to make a large bowl for some time, and when I saw this mold I bought it.
The result is a 15.5" diameter bowl that is about 4" deep. This is the largest bowl I have made to date. It is 3/8" thick.
I was able to fuse both these project in the oven at one time thus saving energy to compensate for Karen wanting to use the heat in her studio.....
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