Mrs. Peanut

It's unseasonably cold in Florida this week with a hard freeze of 25 F this morning. I was wondering what to do inside. When, I said to myself, why not make something in clay. Of course you already knew that. Bet you didn't know what I was going to make, 'cause I didn't have a clue myself.

But I rolled out some clay and decided to make something with texture. First I carved the indentations one row at a time. Row after row I moved along with my wire tool. Pretty soon I had a multitude of rows and decided to leave a band of plain clay, as visual relief, which I thought would help break up all the rows of texture. I even thought about adding an actual waistband sprig, but decided to save that for another piece.

After I put the front and back together I looked at the piece and thought it looked like Mrs. Peanut. You might wonder why I'm calling her Mrs. Peanut? Don't you think the surface looks a bit like a peanut? Now that I'm looking at a photo of a peanut, maybe the surface isn't exact, but it's close enough.

I've yet to have boiled peanuts, a Southern delicacy around here. I really should stop at one of the roadside peanut stands. If I spoke with a Southern drawl I might ask for "balt peents". (I'm thinking this affectionately and respectfully).

Next I fiddled around making handles on each side. I worked for quite some time, testing each shape and style of handle as I went along. I'm not sure these handles adequately express Mrs. Peanut's attitude, but the clay hardened at an alarming rate, so I left her as she is, with wavy arms and hands on her hips.

In the back of my mind I'm hoping to add to the peanut family with different attitudes and handles. Maybe I can make a lid for one and it can be a peanut jar. Maybe a head for a lid; I can just see a crinkled (peanut) face in my mind. Once again the possibilities are endless.