Week Six

Hello Everyone,
Sorry this update is a bit late. I spent last week away from Lynne and Phil. I was in Cranleigh, England for 2 days with Claire and her family. Then I stayed in London with Lisa Hammond for 5 days. I had a fantastic week but it was very nice to come back to Wales. I got to experience a very British tradition called Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes night. Traditionally on November 5, it is often celebrated the weekend before. It commemorates the capture of Guy Fawkes who was involved in a plot to blow up parliament in 1605. Guy Fawkes was captured then tortured and executed. There were many bonfires in England as people celebrated his capture. 36 barrels of gunpowder were to be used to decimate the parliament which has translated in to most towns and villages having a display of fireworks in the modern day celebration. In Cranleigh, the kids made effigies of Guy Fawkes (rather like scarecrows) that were put on the bonfire and burned. If you want to learn more about the history and the tradition of Bonfire Night here is a good website http://www.bonefire.org/guy/index.php. Claire's husband, Simon made me an informational packet about the holiday so I knew all about it by the time we were ready to head into the village to celebrate. Armed with three foot long torches we joined a huge group of people who were walking towards the park where the bonfire was. I think all the people in the village came out for this celebration; there were hundreds of people. When I looked behind me, torches stretched back on the road further than I could see. There was a little parade and several orchestras. It was a little strange walking down the street with a torch burning with a mob of other torch-wielding people. When we got to the field where the bonfire was we handed our torches to these men who put them on the unlit pile of burnables. It was easily the biggest bonfire I've ever seen; about as tall as my parent's 2 story house. Before the fire was lit a historical poem was read and the reader said to the crowd, "Shall we hang him?" (crowd shouts "NO!"), "Shall we drown him?" "NO!", "Shall we burn him?" "Yes!". With that the fire was lit with the torches and all the effigies started to go up in flames. It was a little macabre with all those "Guys" sizzling on the fire. It became too hot to stand near so we moved to another part of the field and waited for the fireworks display. There was a fantastic arrangement of fireworks then we walked back to the house. It was a very interesting celebration. I had a great time staying with Claire and Simon. They are very fun people and their two sons are very cute and amusing. Mattie kept calling me "Gary", because to his five year old brain my name "...sounds like Sponge Bob's best friend". On Monday I took the train into London. I got off at Maze Hill station and found Lisa Hammond's studio very easily. It is in the old train ticket office right off the platform. Lisa and her apprentice Yoji were finishing up for the day. While Lisa wrapped up her throwing Yoji and I took Lolly (Lisa's dog) for a walk in Greenwich Park. It is a HUGE and very lovely park not far from the studio. As it was dusk, we got a great view of central London's lights. Lisa has a great flat (apartment) in a residential area of London. It is a Victorian building with high ceilings, arches and area of exposed brick. She has a fantastic collection of pots. I really liked her kitchen as she had all her plates, baking dishes and bowls stored on a huge open bookshelf. Besides Lolly, there were 4 cats, (all very old and nice) living at Lisa's . She also has a 17 year old son named Bill who is currently looking at art colleges (brings back memories of my college searching days). On Tuesday I took the tube into the city. The tube is an underground train that is unbelievably easy to use. I bought a day pass for about $11 and could go virtually anywhere. I went to the Victoria and Albert which is a big art museum. They have an extensive ceramics collection but it was unfortunately shut for renovations. I was able to search out other bits of pottery here and there. The section on Asian art held many lovely Chinese, Japanese and Korean pots. I did many sketches and observations. I was fascinated by the textiles department. It was this big, air conditioned room with all these wooden frames stacked in shelves like books. There was a vertical handle on each frame. Within each frame there was a panel of cloth or bits of clothing. There was fabric from all over the world and dating back as far as the 4th century! Much of it was woven or embroidered. It blew my mind that a person sewed all these delicate and fine patterns by hand. The sense of design and pattern was astounding and inspiring. I could have spent a whole day just in that room. There was a fantastic figure sculpture room with many beautiful pieces. I enjoyed meandering about and sketching whatever I fancied whether it was a prehistoric earthenware pot, a Rodin sculpture or an Elizabethan fabric pattern. When I got back to Lisa's, Yoji was looking worse for wear as he had come down with a bad cold/flu thing. Lisa's week was packed full and very busy because she needed to do a firing. I decided to stay at the pottery on Wednesday and be Yoji for the day so he could stay home and recover. I helped Lisa load her small soda kiln which took a good part of the day. She green glazes her pieces and only fires them once so it was a whole new experience for me. We finished up just in time for her to teach her 6 pm class. The next day Yoji was a little better but did not come to the studio until much later in the day to help soda the kiln. Lisa was throwing baking dishes and I decided to make jugs/pitchers. It was like being in a Lisa Hammond workshop as I saw how she fired her kiln and watched as she made her distinctive pots. I had tried making baking dishes last spring but had some cracking problems with them. I will try her method and see if I have better results. She gave me some pointers on pulling spouts and handles. It never ceases to amaze me how every potter does basic things so differently. She told me to save a few jugs and she would fire them for me! It was quite a contrast working in her studio with the train going by every 15 minutes when compared with Phil's serene countryside environment. It was blustery with occasional rain. Lisa likes the wind because it blows the fire about leaving dramatic flame paths on her pots. Yoji came late in the day and helped spray the soda into the kiln. There are ports in the front and back of the kiln. Lisa introduces soda into the front and back simultaneously. We finished firing about 11:30 pm with everyone a little exhausted. Lisa seemed pleased with how it all went. I spoke with her a few days later when she had unloaded it and she was happy with the results.
On Friday I got a ride back to Rhayader with Jason and Julianne who are friends of Lynne and Phil. They live in a town near the Rogers but were visiting London for a few days. It took about 4 hours to get home but we had a pleasant time chatting as Jason is a potter and Julianne is a painter. It was so good to get back to Rhayader! Phil had improved a lot and was not even using his cane. Lynne had gone back to work her normal part time schedule and Phil kept busy working on a catalog for a sale of Hamada's work he is hosting in the spring. He was able to come with me when I walked the dogs in the field. I knew he was recovering because he was wearing blue jeans again. He came home from hospital in gym pants which Phil absolutely despises wearing. For about two weeks it was all he could wear because his flexibility was so limited. He hated every minute wearing those pants! It is great seeing small improvements. He is still experiencing pain in his back but Lynne and I are keeping him laughing and smiling. There is an old apple tree in the yard which had an extremely productive year. Once they were all picked, the apples filled 15 shopping bags! On Saturday it was rainy and cold. We got a fire going and Phil located a bunch of pottery dvds. We sat and peeled apples for a long time while we watched movies. It was really fun. Now there are loads of peeled apples in the freezer. If anyone has good apple recipes they would like to share it would be greatly appreciated. We've got more apples than we know what to do with! I'm planning a thanksgiving meal for next week....I think there will be many apple dishes on the table! Well, sorry this email is long but so much happened. I'm including a few pictures from Bonfire Night and some of our apple peeling fun. I hope you are all healthy and well.