More Glazes, and New Band and an update

I mixed up a base glaze of 1 part clay, 2 parts whiting, 3 parts silica and 4 parts feldspar last night. The simple formula is one that Bernard Leach used a lot and talks about in A Potter's Book. For those that don't know who Leach is, he was a Englishman who travelled to Japan in the early part of last century to study, became enamoured with pottery and devoted the rest of his life to it. He is perhaps the most influential potter the west has ever had. A Potter's Book, is one of the most widely read sources on pottery as a business and a way of life. He became lifelong friends with Shoji Hamada, a Japanese National Treasure, and contributed to, or had an opinion on every movement in clay until his death in 1979. His pottery at St. Ives was a destination for many up and coming potters, who would work in some capacity for varying lengths of time. Warren MacKenzie, one of my favorite potters, was one of those up and comers. Which reminds me that MacKenzie is having a show next year! In Brockton, Mass.

Now that I've meandered all through a very vague history of what informed my decision to use that particular formula, I will continue: After mixing the base glazes using different feldspars for each test, I applied the glaze to test tiles. I should note that I used Custer, Kona F4, Neph Syn, and Cornwall Stone. After coating all the tiles, I realized I hadn't added any Iron! I was trying to determine the effects of different feldspars in a Celadon. AHHH! So. . . I'm excited to see how my different base glazes turn out, sans iron. I'm going to call whichever base I like best, "my sans celadon". Embarrassing.

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After class, I went to Dantes and caught a new band. Friends of mine including Dori, Jason Medina and Garrett, are in a new band called Trial Balloons. They sound like a mixture of 60's naivety and Scandinavian good taste in design. The songs are composed of long meandering guitar lines, solid and interesting bass, very good drumming and keyboards along with some damn fine singing thanks to Dori.

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I visited my Mom this last weekend. She was in the hospital in Seattle. She had a lot of family around and seemed to be in good spirits, although she was a little sad after finding out that she definitely has to have at least another round of Chemo before she can begin the new treatment. We're looking at over a month before she can even begin the treatment she went there to receive. The great news is that I feel really good about the hospital she's at. The nurses are very nice, thorough and communicate with one another. Already they've surpassed the previous hospital in terms of knowledge, organization and communication. At one point a nurse came in and was just in the room. She could have come in, done her work and left, but she made a point of spending a few minutes just being present. It sounds strange, but that meant a lot to me. Thinking of my Mom there alone on those nights when nobody can be there, is sad, but knowing that the men and women that are there to help her get better understand how important it is to just be present is a small, very necessary source of relief.