Clay Drying

Sometimes I think it's hard to improve on the way the clay looks right here,before you even wedge it,rolled off the towel on which it has partially dried,still pretty chaotic,but just starting to clothe itself in a shape. This is pure,unadulterated Naaman porcelain- full of Eastern promise.

The Persuader

Do your hammers have names? This is my hammer of choice for breaking things [I have 7 or 8 hammers of various sizes,weights and degrees of delicacy]. It is long,with a fine heft , a waffle head and a mighty wallop,and very few things stand in its path for too long. I used it on the porcelain mentioned below.

Almost Independence Day

It is,in fact,already our 60th anniversary of independence [for the pedantic,among whom I am proud to number myself,it seems to me that it is in fact the 59th anniversary: independence having been declared in 1948,1949 would have been the first anniversary,so that 2009 will be the 60th...] but I like Van Morrison's song title,and we haven't yet lit the barbeque,which really signals the heart of the celebrations.
So what's with the porcelain?
Well it caught my eye this morning-two large lumps of the original Naaman porcelain that have been sitting in a corner since I started using the Coleman porcelain. Sydney and I bought 10 tons of the stuff when the factory closed down some 10 years ago,paying some ludicrously low price; now porcelain,you might think,is not a very local material,but- firstly- it was put together from imported raw materials by the factory in Haifa,which is already a step in the right direction: secondly,I learned from a conversation with the Naaman technicians that they used magnetically-de-ironed sand from the Negev in the batch- which does make it much more local.
What I'm getting at is that this is also my story -white,difficult to work with,and apparently foreign to this country- but when you dig a bit deeper,you find a strong connection.So it seemed appropriate to whack the 2 lumps with a large hammer,douse it in the last of last Winter's rainwater [having strained out the mosquito larvae] and start getting it ready for use.
Happy Independence Day!

The Way to Bethlehem

The Galilean one,where it looks like I shall be shooting every couple of weeks [they shoot on Tuesdays,and I teach in Tel Hai every other Tuesday]. This week I met Igor the Coach- why is it that Russian trainers always look like bears?- who conceded that my basic technique was o.k.,and even liked my left [bow] hand- not the whole arm,of course,just the hand- and then set about changing everything else,making jokes about the fate of people who don't do what their Russian trainers tell them [did I mention his KGB past?]. I feel a bit like Georgia.

Celadonia

Does everyone know where the name celadon comes from? My two favourite versions [i.e. nobody knows for sure] are:
1] the name of a shepherd in d'Urfe's 1627 play,L'astree,who seems to have dressed in pale green ribbons [one hopes not only]
2] A corruption of Salah al-Din [a.k.a. Saladin,] the Muslim ruler of Egypt who sent some celadon pieces to Syria in 1171 before capturing Jerusalem,which led to the third crusade under Richard 1,in whose absence there were widespread massacres of Jews in England,leading up to their expulsion in 1290. Saladin offered his personal physician to the ailing King Richard- and guess who that renowned healer was? Yup,you got it- the Rambam [Maimonides]. Small world,eh?
In Hebrew,with a bit of imagination,celadon could be taken to mean "the Shadow of God",which seems appropriate for the coolest of glazes.
Here's my current recipe [for you,Kate];

Potash Feldspar 967
Quartz 440
Whiting 255
China clay 180
Barium Carbonate 150
Ochre 5
Red iron oxide 15

Glaze THICK on porcelain [it's not runny],fire to cone 9 reduction,let me know what happens. The recipe is untidy [doesn't add up to 100] because it's a combination of 2 celadon glazes.
"Celadonia",a word I thought I might have made up,is a girl's name,and means "swallow" [as in the bird]. If I'd been blessed with daughters....

Mortar and Pestle

I bought some rock salt recently,which often needs grinding before use,and our only kitchen mortar usually has pepper in it. Cleaning up for Pesach, I came upon some small grinding sticks I got in Japan,which seemed just the right size,so I made these three mortars,which came out quite nicely [though I haven't tried one out yet]. Quite a few of the shapes I make were inspired by kitchen needs: it really helps in this profession if you do a little cookery [or at the very least enjoy eating].
The firing yesterday was interesting: at 1000 degrees I could see by comparing the colour in the kiln at the upper and lower spy-holes that we were heading for an even firing;getting a good strong reducing flame required closing the flue completely for part of the firing,a rather fearsome practice [the repaired kiln evidently leaks air,I suspect mainly through the roof arch],but the resulting flame was a healthy clear blue/orange,instead of the recent rather sickly [and smokey] yellow flame I have been getting. Michael Cardew z"l points out [in "Pioneer Pottery",which I have been learning assiduously with Sydney for the last year,and which we are about to finish] that black smoke is the enemy of good reduction,and I felt after the firing [it was indeed even] that it might yield better results than the last couple,which it did- reds not as good as they used to be,but at least recognisably red [copper red glazes that don't reduce properly come out a rather unpleasant crazed glassy pale green,not to be confused with the pale green of under-reduced celadons- see last week's post].

Holocaust Remembrance Day

The ten o'clock siren this morning,announcing a minute's silence and reflection all over the country,found me unloading yesterday's glaze kiln. Contemplating these huddled white bodies in their gas oven brought an overwhelming rush of complicated feelings- so many died just like this,including large parts of my own family: yet these guys survived their ordeal,which for me represents a tremendous "tikkun",or fixing- in fact,they're on their way to a design show in Sweden. They are porcelain,unglazed outside,celadon inside.

My How You've Grown!

More instructive statistics from Sitemeter

Child Labour

Elsie,the daughter of local friends,helping out this morning.

Back on Target

After a year or so without archery,I have discovered the BetLechem HaGlilit club [not that they were lost] about an hour's drive away,where I shot a few dozen arrows yesterday.Great place,good friendly people [many of whom,strangely,seem to share my preponderance for Marksman bows] and the prospect [see photo] of shooting at 30,50,or even 70 metres [if my bow gets that far]. They have a Russian coach called Igor,who reputedly shot for the KGB. I haven't met him yet,but shall try not to annoy him.

Palely Loitering

Anyone read Keats? I don't,but my mother used to use the expression,and it popped into my mind when I took these celadon pieces out of the kiln, suitable for those of a nervous disposition,maybe,who need a lot of calm. We're just before Shabbat,which will segue into Pesach tomorrow evening,so there is much tidying,burning,cooking,taking out of Pesach dishes and general mayhem. Meanwhile,I finished off some lustred mugs this morning,and am approaching 500 degrees with a small lustre firing in the gas kiln- at 500 I can turn it up and hustle to top temp of 720-750. Next job is to grate the horseradish for the Seder; let's hope it's a strong one this year,to clear the nasal passages of all the dust we've been breathing.
The kiln is behaving strangely these days,requiring much heavier reduction to produce apparently less-reduced effects- apparently,because the celadon glaze might just have been a bit too thin; I've gone back to my first celadon glaze,because the second,though giving a good intense colour,crazed too much for my liking. The 2 glaze firings I've just finished came out well,after a struggle [which is half the fun,of course]- the new batch of French clay looks good,as does the new slip [my old porcelain slip had a tendency to peel in the glaze firing,aggravated since I started adding the more refractory Spanish clay to get a better body colour] and the recently-troublesome cream glaze seems to have settled down and is giving good results [and consistent- a novelty]. a bunch of copper-glazed cups didn't go red [and ran a bit],otherwise everything was fine,and the studio is now washed down,surfaces waxed,display shelves sorted and ready for visitors.
Shabbat Shalom! Happy and Kosher Pesach!