The View From Kalamazoo

Vatican to share holy medieval texts with Israel

Funny Monks? The Church of the Humor Monastery

Unfunny Monks? Silence is golden for an ancient order that became a modern attraction

Tonight my ceramics class starts, we have freezing rain forecasted over the heavy, wet inches of lovliness we awoke to find, and I’m coming down with Colin’s cold. Oh, and it’s day two of my Program into PakeMager adventure. So good to be me…/sarcasm

So here it is, the long-awaited post-full-o-images. I discover, of course, that in my stupidity haste to send out the package for Laura in ol’ St. Louie that I managed to take pics of everything except the (raku fired, wheel-thrown, FWIW) vase I sent her. Not a bowl I gave to anyone in-state, oh no, it would be one of the two items that went out UPS. Brilliant. (Now I’ll have to remember to take a camera with when I next make a pilgrammage to Pat’s, and with my luck Cedric will have knocked it off a shelf with his big kitty butt.)

I’m running through them in rough order of class time-line:

The first set were all raku* glazed, and all from the first night of class – 2 pinch pots, and two hand-formed soft slab pieces shaped by draping over natural objects.

The next set are also hand-built (two views of the covered cassarole) – coil.

The next set were all soft-slab built. The platter was shaped using a plaster form (I include two shots) and the vase is really f-ing huge…there are umbrella-stand jokes about it. My advice: gladiolas or irises.

These were made from slabs I let partly dry to they were leather-hard – I cut the pieces out like I would cut fabric for a pattern and them assembled them. I include two views of the ‘teapot’ (it was the shape I was going for, not the function – the handle is too close to the top opening to be convenient). The triangular piece was an experiment…I wanted to practice using a beveled-edge as well as butting the pieces together – Bri claimed this one as his and it now lives on his desk at work. It actually works remarkably well as a copy-stand…

This next bunch, minus the piece now living in the land of the giant arch, were all of my wheel-thrown pieces. There were fewer wheels than people in the class, so our time was limited. Since I’m taking an all-wheel class (beginning Tuesday) this term, I’ll be able to do a lot more. I do really enjoy some of the hand-building techniques we tried, so I’ll likely plan to spend some of the open studio time on Saturdays doing more with those. It’ll give my carpel-tunnel-wannabee wrists a break.
The first two were raku glaze – and the second of those turned out a little different – I don’t know why the crackle and metallic elements aren’t obvious, but that’s one of the interesting things about this technique…it’s infinite variability and the impossibility of really controlling the outcome.

And this is was the last piece I finished – we had a little time at the end to finish our pieces, and since I had come in Saturdays to glaze and finish them I decided to take the time trying an idea. This tile is about a foot square and I carved a knotwork tree into the soft slab – this picture doesn’t much do it justice (the glaze is much more interesting, the color mossier..and I probably should have gotten a close-up of the carved center) and I think I’ll make more (maybe using different semi-transparent glaze colors) and if I’m productive I can sell them and try to pay for more classes that way.



[A trivet, or, hung on the wall…the simplicity and versitility of the design, plus it’s not like the million-and-one mugs at the art sale early last month, should make it stand out. I hope..]

*(Japanese ceramic firing process – each piece is fired in a ceramic
kiln until it reaches 1800F degrees. Then the piece is removed with
long tongs and placed in a metal can with combustables. The heat from
the piece ignites the paper [or wood chips or whatever] causing a
reaction with the components (ex: copper) of the glaze. The metal can
is lidded and the piece allowed to cool in the reduction atmosphere)

Yes, I’m so very behind in tracking news and posting here. I was barely online at all for the last two weeks or so – either away with no computer, or away and faced with dialup. I survived intact, so let’s chalk this up as another year I don’t have to join Bloggers Anonymous.

NOTE: The story link I posted previously on the Massa Marittima mural didn’t have images – check this one to see portions of the mural.

For all playing along at home, surgery is set for Feb. 15. Please do not storm the Medieval Institute with teeming masses of shouting villagers waving torches and pitchforks until after that date, thanks. And I will edit the photos of the ceramics from last term very soon – holidays are never as long as I’d like, nor as devoid of running around and visiting to allow me to get half of what I’d like to do, done. So save your nagging. Please.

In the news the last few weeks:
Archaeologists are awaiting confirmation they have unearthed what has been hailed as a “major” discovery – the first Roman chariot-racing track in Britain.

The bloodbath at Brunanburh in 937 AD was fought by King Athelstan when he united the Anglo-Saxons for the first time to fight off a Viking invasion…research claims that the site of the battle mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was on what is now a golf course in Bebington, Wirral.

State-of-the-art forensic techniques have been used to reconstruct the face of an Anglo-Saxon woman who had similar status to a modern princess. You know, I love this stuff – maybe, had I the information then that I have now, I might have more seriously considered forensic anthro/arch with emphasis on forensic facial recon with skulls…I used to love sculpting portrais in bust, did it in high school, and even in my beginning sculpture class as a freshman art major lo those many years ago. But I thought it was a field even less flush with opportunities and possibilities than medieval hist…silly me. *snark*

So then, it should be no surprise that Time Team is one of my favorite ways to waste time in front of the blowing electric altar: The remains of a medieval pottery kiln were found in the newly-excavated footings at the site in Bancroft.

They used that stuff in contraception? I should contact this guy, since magical ‘contraception’ has been a topic favorite of mine…

Medieval villagers ‘passed human TB on to their cattle’

Women warriors from Amazon fought for Britain’s Roman army.

Harry Potter and Winnie the Pooh in Latin watch out for ol’ Pete: Beatrix Potter’s classic children’s book The Tale of Peter Rabbit has been translated into ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs by the British Museum.