2008/12/19

ICE LANTERNS















A cold snap gives me the chance to make ice lanterns- I like to do this in the cold, dark time of the year.
They are very beautifull outside with a candle at night.

1-It has to be cold, minus 10 celcius I would say.

2-Fill a big 5 gallon bucket with water-just short of the top because ice gets "bigger" than water.

3-Let it freeze, at 10 below it will take 24 hours or so for the ice to grow a couple inches thick..and you will see that it grows inward from the outside walls-as well as downwards from the top of the bucket.

4-When you thinkthe ice is thick enough to be a lantern, I drill a hole the size of a candle in the ice at the top of the bucket... ( which will become the bottom soon)

5-Drain the inside water into a spare container,when it is drained- take it inside to melt the bucket loose.

6- Remove the bucket, keep the shell frozen ..clear out a hole in the ice now at the top (which was the bottom of the bucket and does not freeze so thick)

7-Put a candle in the hole drilled and enjoy it change as the days and nights go by.

2008/12/13




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Well it has been a busy week, I went to Izas' class and did pinch pots with the kids... and of course the range of what they do is amazing. I did not want them to do anything besides a little pinch bowl...and some had a hard time doing this, just not able to focus on the simplicity of it and wondering if it was the best or second best or other such qualitative comparison making...
Meanwhile a very quiet girl asked if I would help her make a spout,which I did...and then before I knew it she had added a handle and a lid ! A very shy girl, almost silent towards me.
And then another friend wanted to have a little lesson with her visiting friend from Netherlands, so okay..
Along with a bunch of bowls that did not fit the anagama last Thanksgiving- I loaded the electric kiln and easily fired a cone 6 load which I was very happy with..a glaze made with local clay looks as nice as a Hagi (cone10) that I have favored for years. And it was so easy..it was a revelation and reminder how easy it can be, and how I want it to be.
I had glazed and refired some anagama tea bowls with success too.
Nice to have some pots for gifting.

2008/12/07


December, heavy rain last night and I am thinking that I should get up to the Anagama and tarp up the chimney before the damp washes down into the kiln area...this has been the thing I have been doing every winter since 1991 when I built it...and did not keep building enough to relax about this aspect of things. I need a big shed there, and a better cover over the kiln. Oh well. I'd like lots of things,and it is becoming more and more apparent that I have spread myself too thin...just as the economy goes, I see I am operating a deficit of energy and attention- and it is slowly imploding. I am being buried in my interests and struggling to clear up my life.
Frost is on the rain barrel at the kiln- that is the photo above,taken during the loading in September. The picture looks three dimensional as the blue water recedes next to the needles.
The family is playing a table game, with their aunt visiting...there is talk of a christmas tree,I am lobbying to cut one from the cabin meadow- while sue would like to go to a tree farm in lumby.
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2008/12/04




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I will describe my 'TILT-O-WHEEL'- a simple ball mill, or a pot tumbler,or a glaze material grinder.
I take a bucket,drill two holes and with longer screws than the usual bat pins,I attach it to the wheel head (use some washers too).
then,I put another bucket nestled inside-for interchangability ,and also then I don't have to fill the bolt holes.
then I simply TILT the wheel!
Put water, rocks and gravel-or porcelain balls- and set the wheel so the rocks tumble.
If grinding glaze materials,I have some pieces of steel or some old cannon balls or...
put the lid on for quietness-maybe line it with rubber,and let it roll.
Pots become nice and smooth to the hand, but don't appear much different in a picture.

2008/12/03

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SIMPLE WATER SAVER

I thought I would put this photo in of my water saver-it took only a few minutes to install a piece of plastic hose 20 inches long (up the pipe...) and when the toilet is flushed the refill water is redirected up the pipe and then is used to wash the hands and goes into the tank and then the tank fill and shuts off just like it always does...
This is the first one I made- toilets in Japan have built in ones, but I thought it could easily be made here. It doesn't have to be a fancy sink or faucet...

2008/12/02

Ikkyus' Poems, Earth Clock, Tilt-O-Wheel

A sixteenth century zen monk named Ikkyu used to write a poem a day, and throw it away. Complex stuff, classic chinese rhymes full of inuendo-with his exquisite brushed calligraphy. A thousand poems were collected by his "followers'...(was he a 16th century blogger?) and he is thought to be the instigator of tea wabi-sabi aesthetics-Rikkyu was one he influenced.
Rikkyu is the one given credit, but I think Ikkyu is so fascinating- could be a Hollywood movie!
Tomorrow I am making pots with my daughters first grade class, might be fun time!...get their pots fired by the gift season.
In the studio, my" TILT-O-WHEEL " turns and tumbles a tea bowl,taking off the roughness of the ash. Can't see it in a photo, but it can be felt with the hands. I will post some photos of the "gizmo" in a day or two.
Years ago, in a sleepless night-(1975 ) I concieved a "clock" that consisted of a night and day, always lit image of the earth from space,with the North Pole at the center and the earth turning counter-clockwise once every 24 hours. I thought this ,with it showing them the seasonally varied sunlit and darkened sphere of the earth much like it is ,would give such a wonderfull intuitive understanding of what time and season and night and day and dawn and sunset and...etc
Anyway,I always collected little pieces of the prototype, and talked to friends about the idea in an attempt to make one...until recently when I saw Google Earth coming so close... and then yesterday I found Google Earth had added the exact thing I was trying to create, the sun and the shadow on the earth!
Without the countries borders it would be hard to see where ones town is, I wanted to have a little light that went around...perhaps I can get it set up like that in a bit. It also helps every one see what time of the day or night it is in other parts of the world-where friends and family and news is happening....when it is getting light or dark-check it out, I think it is an upgrade available for free now. I still would like one on the wall, like a digital photo frame with the earth turning in real time...a frame could alternate with pictures of friends and family and places...
I loaded some file folders today, and shuffed a few decades of National Geographics into rubbermaids in the back of the trailer to take to the cabin,
Tidying up!
Testing testing,1,2,3....(squeal of a microphone...) I am not yet certain how to do this,so ..here goes.....
It is the second of december,I have bought 50 legal file folders and am somehow determined to file my mountain of papers the right way-after spending the weekend looking for a 110 year old grocery receipt from Sam Livingston...and being buried in my trash collection.
I collect trash, grocery receipts most often.. bits of scribbles I find on the road and sidewalk and shopping store floors and carts. I could find about 300 other receipts,but not Sams'-my oldest. It was for Jaspers family history study at school.I did a family tree for him and had over 100 of his ancestors on it. In the course of that I went through all my family history books and files and basically piles in my map drawer.... and,again-a huge weighty feeling of needing to clear it up and make it organized...so, today I got at that again.
If I find that 85 dollar receipt,I will post it !
daniel