Round and About

In the studio, a round bowl of round things.

I like round things.  Nests, bowls, stones smoothed by water- eggs, balls of yarn, fruit from the tree.  Globes of the world (I have 3!), cauldrons, gourds.  Anything rounded is comforting, safe.  I should very much like to sleep in a nest sometime (actually, there is a 'human nest' at the Treebones resort on Big Sur... along with Yurts, which are also round.  If I ever win the lottery, that is on my bucket list).  

This bowl sits in my studio, which by the way, I call my 'messy nest'.  Our cottage is named Tanglewood, and so it is fitting that it has both a Rose room and a Messy Nest...haven't discovered the names of the other rooms yet. But in the bowl, which rests on one of the white shelves full of books below the stained glass windows, is a collection of things that are roundish.  White stone cannon shot, and heavier shot of rusted iron.  Smaller metal shot, all recovered from one of the family places out towards the farm.  A hacky sack made of chain mail, tiny gourds, flat transparent seed pods on a branch.  There is a shell there as well- not round but spidery (it is a spider conch, so that would make sense) and other seed pods, puffy and triangular. The cat loves all this wonderful rustly stuff I keep around- The bowl itself is turned wood, a heavy bowl back from the time when wooden salad sets were all in vogue  I don't remember where I acquired it but I've had it forever, at least since I lived in Charleston in the mid 80's, and it was a thrift or yard sale find then.

Looking around the studio there are many other bowls- one full of fossils, shark teeth and rocks that Mr. Owens finds for me, a set of painted wooden bowls (another salad set) that I made to sell but liked so much I ended up keeping.  There is a bowl of puzzle pieces, hand dyed tags, old rusty keys- more.  Tangles of yarn, bitter ends of pencils, beads and eraser crumbs.  Bits and pieces and stuff.

Long ago when I was little, one of my beloved picture books was about birds, and my favorite bird of all was the bowerbird.  This is the bird that builds its nest like a little hut, then decorates it with brightly colored fruits, flowers, strings- anything in it's color set.  Oddly enough, they do have color sets- some decorate in all cobalt blue, some red, orange, black- bright intense colors, and they group and sort.  It is part of their nesting and mating behavior- a beautiful mystery.  My nest is part bowerbird but mostly magpie or crow- I like the odd bits of stuff as well, which is why there are so many curious and old things about. It is a place that is warm and safe and interesting- even if a bit messy.