Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Tides of Mont St. Michel


Eventually I was drawn in by the rhythm of the prose in the novel Tides of Mont St. Michel written by Roger Vercel and translated from the French in 1934. At first I had to push myself through the words almost as if I was wading through the sands and tides surrounding the island. Likewise the main character Andre found himself won over by the austere yet ever changing abbey landscape where he experienced adventure, social adjustment, and moral conflict along the way. I found more than a few parallels in my quest in the world today.

Meanwhile we have hunkered down in Ocala, Florida for a much needed rest after crossing 2600, sometimes harrowing, miles. We plan to look around and visit a few beaches. I want to get some work fired and work on some more.


The bowl above is a pinched stoneware bowl where I rolled the rim out and over almost touching the base. Later I applied some Navajo wheel terra sig and used sgraffito to scribe the lines. I was surprised how deep I had to make the cuts to uncover the white clay below. I'd like to put a bit of cobalt blue glass in the bottom center of the bowl. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

15 comments:

  1. Would you consider a tutorial on making that bowl?

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  2. Love the bowl. Also loved Ocala. Hope you get to see some of the beautiful horse farms there.

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  3. Hi Cindy, thanks, I was actually thinking of making a reverse of this bowl. Stay tuned in a week or two and I'll see what I can do.

    Hi Patti, thanks about the bowl, I'll have to look around to find some. today we're going over towards Herando area in hopes of finding a beach or two.

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  4. mont st. michel... good music from that part of the world. if you get a chance, check out kornog, a breton band. good to hear you're having a stopover.

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  5. Fun! I thought we were having fun! Enjoy!
    Meredith

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  6. love that bowl, so beautiful!

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  7. Hi Cynthia, thanks so much, glad you like it.

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  8. Hi Linda, I am really glad you liked my works. next week I'll take some photos of the tools I am working with for the sgraffito, (because i don't know their names in English...)but I know now from experience, that more than the tools, the stage of the hard-leather is more important . when it is too soft, the cut is unclean. I use 2 different surgeon-blades (scalpel?), the tool with metal littles balls in its edges. and a tool with little wire in the shape of triangle.

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  9. Hi Varda, thanks so much, you are really on to something, keep making the work you are doing as they are truly beautiful. I just used a trimming tool for my sgraffito and I think something sharper would have done a better job. My work was extremely dry when I tried the sgraffito, more practice is definitely needed on my part. I love your work, so very beautiful. I would love to have one of those red black mountain bowls, they are so much to my liking and style. If you had some of the cassius basaltic clay I am working with you would just love it. it is similiar to black mountain, but so smooth, oh so lucious. How do you get your clay, is it shipped?

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  10. Hi Linda- My clay mentor, Bill Sabo is in St. Petersburg FL. A bit south I think of where you are but in St. Pete's there is a VERY COOL St. Pete's Clay Company. It would be great if you could fire your things there! HEre are a couple of links
    http://www.stpeteclay.com/
    http://www.stpete.org/

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  11. Hi Meredith, thanks, I seem to be gettin behind on my reponses - no that's not right, my response to you and Jim seems to have disappeared. Hum.

    Hi Jim, thanks, you always amaze me you are so well read and traveled too.

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  12. Hi Cindy, thanks, actually we are planning on taking a few trips down that way, so I hope to look your mentor and the clay shop up. thanks so much for the info.

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  13. Love the bowl, Linda. Like the way the white reaches out yet pulls the eye in. Enjoy Florida and new experiences.

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  14. are you still in Florida? hope your journey is going well.

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  15. Hi Kittie, thanks so much, I'm lucky it's warm here compared to every where else.

    Hi Amy, thanks, yes I am still in Florida, things are going well.

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I love suggestions, questions, critiques, thanks for your comment