today walking through the park. a guy was playing bass and singing “stand by me”. otherwise unaccompanied. beautiful strong clear sound. lots of people stopped to listen. it was haunting. nostalgic. I gave him a buck and told him it was really nice. he thanked me for listening. I was melancholy for hours after.
I have been meaning to post about pottery for quite a while. I recently participated in a saggar firing workshop in upstate New York, and that seems as good an excuse as any to go ahead with it.
I also practiced taking decent photos of my pots, so that’s another reason.
So here is a long post on both the pots and the workshop.
Probably my favorite of the pots I took to the saggar firing.
I also liked how this delicate little pot came out.
This one also had some nice coloration.
So these are some examples of the pots that came out of the saggar firing.
And here’s the workshop:
The pots we brought to the workshop. How pretty and white they are! Various white stoneware clays, bisque fired, most of them were burnished.
Brenda was our fearless leader. Here she explains the process to us.
Gathered around the saggar kiln, loading the pots.
Here is the saggar when it is halfway loaded. The bottom layer is sawdust, then a layer of pots was added, along with some chemicals and combustibles. Some of us encouraged more flashing and pattern on our pots by binding chemical-soaked straw or other organic materials around them. We also used copper and iron wire, rope and twine for various effects.
Fully loaded. About three layers of pots, with more straw and chemicals scattered around.
Here Brenda explains the gas burner’s operations, and how she intends to fire the kiln. It was about an hour of low heat warmup, then gradually increasing heat over the next five or six hours until cone 06. By the next morning the kiln was cool enough to unload.
After the firing. Same pots, but now they’re in color. Note the leftover ash from the combustibles. You don’t want to breathe this.
A finished pot. The color comes from iron. the strong dark line is an impression from copper wire. Note the gloves. When we started unloading the pots were almost too hot to touch.
This is our happy group with our newly fired pots.
And here are some of the finished pots up closer.
The final step is waxing the pots with pastewax so that they shine with a soft glow. Here is Brenda’s demonstration on one of her own pots.
Here are some of the finished results in her gallery. You can find her at www.bluemoonclay.com
My friend Carolyn had her short video “The Centered Polenta” featured in a Matthew Barney ‘parody’ show in Brooklyn last week. That’s her piece of the exhibit, and in the second photo that’s Carolyn on the right. (I’m not responsible for the photos folks.)
Quite possibly the most beautiful time of year. At least in the Tidal Basin of Washington DC. I was lucky enough to be there at peak time for the cherry blossoms. This and other pink and white photos available on my Flickr site.
Barry and Colette have matching mirror cats. One day I’m going to get them in the same photo, yin-yang style.
The fun of living in NYC is that it doesn’t take a lot to keep you entertained. Just walking around and staring at the sights (sites) can be interesting. You turn a corner, an edge of concrete or steel drops away, and there it is: a View. Day or nite, you never know what to expect.
Just returned from a weeklong trip to the be with the family for Christmas. Traveling is such a gas. I can’t complain since my flights were all on time and went smoothly. But on the return I was really annoyed to learn that, according to the desk attendant, all bags must now be opened by the TSA and handsearched. Is this for real? Normally I do lock my bags, after making sure that nothing suspicious is loaded in them, and have never had a problem. Now I can’t lock my bags at all. Neither can anyone else. So what happens when all those expensive Christmas gifts start disappearing from those unlocked bags on the trip home? Who’s responsible? sheesh.
Christmas time is here, and since I don’t have any Christmas decorations I’ll make my own!
For anyone who’s wondering, there’s a Flickr site for how to do this: brilliantdays.com/archives/2005/10/how_to_create_a.php
and a group to put them in when you’re done. Click on the photo and check out the comments for details.
I’ve been in the process of moving for the past five months. Does it ever end? I’m beginning to think maybe not. But at least once all my sea freight shows up I’ll be able to finish rearranging my living space.
I’m going to go back now and fill in some of the gaps since July.
Two New York City winter institutions - the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, and ice skating.
He’s big, he’s bad, and he’s back on Broadway.
A life-size (?) mannequin of the Kong graced the 44th street intersection today. Peter Jackson’s new movie previewed today as well.
Filmmaker Mustapha Akkad died in the Amman bombings of this past week. His credits included The Lion and the Desert, and The Message, and he produced the Halloween horror film series. His daughter also died in the same tragedy. They were attending a wedding party. (photo lifted from the islamonline.net website)
Having just left Amman, I have a sense of what a terrible tragedy these bombings were. Jordanians think of themselves as a peaceful people, and of their country as a safe place to be. Incidents like this are a horrendous shock, even beyond the grief and destruction and loss of life. Thoughts and prayers to everyone in Amman.
Some of my favorite subway art is here on 14th St. West.
Central Park in the rain. Rain was what we endured most of October. The wettest on record, so they say. Still, the park is beautiful in any weather.
So here’s where I’ve ended up: New Yawk, New Yawk. Truly one of the world’s great cities. You will recognized this immediately as the Chrysler Building, which to me is one of the world’s greatest buildings. I love the audacity of it - how dare they build something that looks like that? This is the view looking south at sunset.
The quintessential pumpkin patch, harbinger of fall and all things halloween-ish and thanksgiving-ish.
I was up at the cottage in the Smoky Mountains, and was lucky enough to receive all sorts of visitors to the bird feeder. A pair of rose-breasted grosbeaks showed up one day and stayed around for quite some time. This is the female of the pair.
If you ever go down to Texas, you can have a movin’ meal on this old paddle-wheel. Or if you’re a confirmed landlubber, you can eat in the restaurant instead. Good food either way.
One of my favorite memories of August was when Basil serenaded the cow. I don’t think she was terribly impressed, but the rest of us were.
Last week was the gala performance of the new Syrian Big Band, trained and directed by Amadis Dunkel. It was a beautiful evening with a couple thousand music lovers present. More photos coming.