Humming Right Along

I used to draw nine dozen hummingbirds a week.

Actually, I used to scratch hummingbirds into each of the nine dozen hummingbird feeders I made every week for Slippery Bank Pottery. I was just out of graduate school, teaching very part time, and making ends meet by throwing production pottery for someone else's studio.

So when I started painting hummingbirds on my pots for Off Center Ceramics, they where highly influenced by all those feeders--stylized, in profile, and frankly not all that good. I was about to retire the design, actually.

Then we got buzzed by a hummingbird at a botanical garden in Seattle. Two, actually, a male chasing a female down the walkway at about eyeball height. It inspired me to take a whole new look a hummingbirds.

Our new Hummingbird is caught in mid-flight, with nectar-filled exotic (okay, imaginary) blossoms almost in reach, on mugs, tumblers, soup bowls, stew mugs, dinner and dessert plates, pie dishes, teapots, vases, cookie jars, baking dishes and servers and french butter dishes. But get them while you can. They move fast.