In Case You Missed It

I have posted this up on my Facebook page but it seems to have been buried in the dross. One of the purposes of beginning a blog was to push myself on a daily or weekly basis to learn and accomplish something new. Learning new things opens new synaptic paths in your brain, which give you confidence but also make it easier to understand new concepts as they are presented.
Doing things in public is a great way to push yourself even further. I have mentioned a few times that I feel so vulnerable out here on the net as if I am walking around with toilet paper hanging out the back of my pants and being the only one who doesn't know. I know that people come across my blog on a daily basis because I can read the stats provided by Blogger and that keeps me going. Hi to you! Step out of your comfort zone and say hi. It's just us really.
So my little horse video is done with a cheap phone app called Stop Motion Studio.

 I made the little horse in ceramic as an exercise in design class when we had to try to fabricate something in ceramic that already existed as a plastic product. The idea was to try to define what made a ceramic product more valuable and functional compared with a cheap and convenient plastic product. There is as much art and design in the mass produced product, which I discovered when trying to replicate it as a hand built piece. It took me hours. I think it has its own charm, maybe a bit like a netsuke (read The Hare with Amber Eyes). It certainly looks more charming on a shelf than a blue plastic horse and has a weight and feel to it that is satisfying in the hand. But horses for courses. I would not give leave to any little person to take my little horsey out in a sandpit to play, and nor would I put a plastic horse in my display shelf.

After my first venture into stop motion I had another go this time with music. I don't know much about copyright on home videos so this music is recorded from a lovely biscuit tin music box I have.

 I have always liked music boxes for their ingenious primitive method of plucking out any tune on a tiny brass wheel. Being a visual person, seeing the brass roll of a music box as a child was one of those ahha moments in understanding the mechanics of music.

 

 

The film is an introduction to a series of beakers that I have made based on masking of faces. I don't offer judgement about this practice because it is something I continue to mull over in many contexts. I for instance like to quietly view the world behind my mask

 

But revealing inch by inch more of myself on this webpage has opened me up to a fuller world.

Here is my cranky little video.

If you cannot view it properly on this page  go to my facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cranky-Ceramics/364393763660769

and have a better look. You might even like to like it!

 

 

Pugmill and psoas

I am in the sometimes fortunate position of owning a pugmill. I bought it on ebay from a school that had decided to disband its ceramics department and probably most of its art department in favour of some educational fad or other. It looks like this

There is a square opening in the top middle section where old clay that needs recycling goes.

Inside that grate section there is a large stainless steel screw which slowly grinds around and squeezes all of the air out of the clay while compressing it into a long tube of clay.

 

It is a very handy piece of equipment to have especially when making sculptures because I need to hollow clay out of forms after they have hardened a bit and by then the clay is too stiff to use. I don't like to waste it so I soak it and drain it and when it is just right it can be fed into the pugmill.

 

The similarity to bodily functions of this machine is an endless source of amusement to small children and grown men alike. And just like the human body, rubbish in causes problems. My pugmill is unwell and constipated. I pug clay for other people and groups and sometimes things in studios fall into clay buckets. Something is stuck inside and blocking the big screw from turning.

 

And now after operating on this end

.

as well as pouring endless bucket loads of water through the top and recycling them, my back is also sore. I will have to wait for  Andrew the magical technician because I can do no more.

 

But like all potters, backs seem to be a constant source of problems and I decided I need to understand what is always failing.  I found a great site

 

Cormorants

It is the time of year when we Victorians really have to admit that the last of the sunny weather has finally gone to the other side of the world and that chilly conditions will be with us for the next few months. The hardiest or most optimistic have eked out every ray of outdoor weather and perhaps left the run a bit late.
Most sensible sailors have moved their boats to safer refuge for the wild winter weather and to undertake the annual maintenance defouling and repairs needed but not all.
One sailor I know is so in love with seeing his pretty little boat bobbing around that he can't bear to make that pilgrimage until the very last minute.

The trouble is these guys.

credit

http://www.ozanimals.com/Bird/Black-faced-Cormorant/Phalacrocorax/fuscescens.html

As you can see they can make quite a lot of mess and if one's boat is the last lonely little one left these black faced cormorants have nowhere else to roost to dry their wings after diving for fish all day. They disgorge the contents of their guts as a form of jet propulsion when scared off by angry boaties. Sweet revenge.
So the annual boat migration has been completed today while I have been safely ensconced in warm leisure world of baking, reading and drawing.
And just so he can remember why he should move aforesaid boat earlier I have made him a little reminder.

credit; Screaming Pixels

So now for the next few months the shore recovers from stampeding feet and it's just water and serenity.