Those Cute Little West Virginia Bears

I have a new favorite post card. It features a complacent- appearing black bear. He or she is quite authentic in appearance-- right down to having a few pine needles and bits of dry grass caught in his/her fur. The print accompanying this fine photo says: “Send more tourists to West Virginia. The last ones were delicious.” 

You may have to be a West Virginian to appreciate that, but it tickled me since no one I know believes anything larger than the occasional small animal likely to get eaten by a bear. Most of the year the bears here exist on berries and other vegetative goodies, given that there is not much water deep enough to provide nourishing fish. I love seeing the few bears we have around and we’ve never known them to come looking for trouble. On the other hand, bears are associated with our area and we capitalize on that. I often put their images on my pots, and I always put them on pots that celebrate the Lost River Valley.

Doug Gronholn, our store manager at Lost River ArtisansCooperative, is an ardent and creative crafter. Recently he volunteered ME to make bear ornaments for the yoga institute coming to town in June. Having taken my “Play in the Clay” class last year, Doug came and spent a whole day making bears with me—between 70 and 80 of them. We got them cleaned too, which was big job. Then they dried and were fired. A week later Doug returned and we glazed bears all day. Each one has LRV on it for the Lost River Valley. He’ll soon be back to help attach ribbons for hanging them. There will be an adequate supply of LRV bears to give one to each delicious tourist!