Reprise: Aegir, Sea-God

Intrepid: Mother-Daughter Abalone Divers

Mother and daughter go abalone-diving for the first time.  They had to work hard on this bright, but surgy day.

In the photo below, I'm fairly sure that's the mother talking to my friends about abalone diving.  The photo below is from the afternoon before the morning shots I caught above.   I've been abalone-diving since 1978, so I did have some advice for this woman.  She had good questions, practical questions, but she also revealed a lack of experience that troubled me.  Van Damme is a protected entry and exit point, mostly, but I wouldn't call the waters out by the arch a novice dive spot at all.  I pointed out some of the dangers as well as places I'd seen divers get lucky, but I also appreciated the sheer verve this woman had.  She wanted to get some abalone, and she was willing to swim and work to get it.   I was happy to see her and her daughter out there the next morning, but I also paddled my kayak nearby to see if they wanted any help or not.  I could see some struggling with all the surge as well as some difficulty with a weight belt, but I didn't patronize these divers by trying to help them when my help wasn't wanted.   I tend to paddle over and hover around any divers, checking whether any aid is wanted, I see out on a surgy day working the long swims.  Male or female, I'll add.  My friend E saw the two later, when they exited the water, and reports that they did not get abalone, but they saw one or two small ones.  Next time, I say.  Next time.

One-Legged Reindeer, Still Flies

Lucky, one-legged reindeer (aka "Glaze-test"): still flies.

The Spirit of Autumn

Hernest: sculpture mix; brown glazes, layered.

(You can learn more about this luck-piece here.)

Joy, Puck's Twin

Dougie MacLean: "Ready For The Storm"

READY FOR THE STORM

The waves crash in and the tide pulls out

It's an angry sea but there is no doubt 

That the lighthouse will keep shining out to warn the lonely sailor

And the lightning strikes and the wind cuts cold through the sailor's bones, to the sailor's soul

Till there's nothing left that he can hold except the rolling ocean

CHORUS

But I am ready for the storm, yes sir, ready

I am ready for the storm, I'm ready for the storm

Oh give me mercy for my dreams

Cause every confrontation seems

To tell me what it really means to be this lonely sailor

But when the sky begins to clear and the sun it melts away my fear

I'll cry a silent weary tear for those that need to love me

CHORUS

The distance it is no real friend

And time will take its time

And you will find that in the end it brings you me, the lonely sailor

And when you take me by your side you love me warm, you love me and

I should have realized I had no reason to be frightened

CHORUS

--Dougie Maclean

A favorite song, like so many of the great Scotsman's creations.

Four Anchors: sculpture mix; jade glazing.

Surviving The Shipwreck: A Graphic Glimpse

The Captive, Unbound (Nisus):
sculpture mix; shino and transparent brown glazing;
copper wire, beaten.

(A bit of fun in the shorebreak after a good day's paddling and free diving.)

Neptune: A Mask (with Visual Backstory)

Neptune: the latest mask for the wall.

Sculpture mix; transparent brown, floating blue, shino, studio-green, denim, and celadon glazing, splashed and layered.

Sculpture mix, formed and drying before the first firing.

Bisqued, with the raw glazes dripped and splashed . . . .

If you compare Neptune in this last shot to the first one, or to the watery versions I've posted previously, you can see how much lighting and background can influence the captured image.

Neptune works best, so far, if I hold the mask in my hands in direct sunlight and turn it this way and that to appreciate the play of so many colors and so much sparkle from the shiny glazing and the many textures.  A lucky piece, I think.

Rhymes With Orange III

A Steady Wind

Clay: sculpture-mix.
Unglazed at present.
Oxide with clear glaze?
Oxide without any other glazing?

The Duck's Luck

Isn't there an old English folktale or folksong with that title?
If there isn't, there should be.

Not that all luck runs downstream . . . .

The ebbs and flows, 
The floods and shoals . . . .

I now tend to consider carrying such a luck piece a worthwhile wooing of Fortuna.   This wrought clod-of-clay gives me something to turn in my hand -- a talisman, a worry-stone --for when I grasp at a bit of boost, that palpable push, from the web-footed luck of the big-billed duck.

Charm: Fare Far, Fare Well

Pathway Charm: sculpture mix; jade green glaze, barely, for relief effect.  (The design is borrowed from an old Norse monument.  I have a metal ornament that I pressed into the clay.)  A blessing piece, as it were: Strength-in-Adversity.

"May you have a good voyage, where'er you fare, here and hereafter."

Pig, In Progress

Wet clay, the other day.

Reprise: Fergus

Fergus: stoneware; brown glazing, layered; copper wire.
      --a Talking Head, as it were, in the Celtic tradition.

Graves: "A Pinch of Salt"

A Pinch of Salt

When a dream is born in you

With a sudden clamorous pain,

When you know the dream is true

And lovely, with no flaw nor stain,

O then, be careful, or with sudden clutch

You'll hurt the delicate thing you prize so much.

Dreams are like a bird that mocks,

Flirting the feathers of his tail.

When you seize at the salt-box,

Over the hedge you'll see him sail.

Old birds are neither caught with salt nor chaff:

They watch you from the apple bough and laugh.

Poet, never chase the dream.

Laugh yourself, and turn away.

Mask your hunger; let it seem

Small matter if he come or stay;

But when he nestles in your hand at last,

Close up your fingers tight and hold him fast. 

--Robert Graves

Hermes/Puck: sculpture mix; raku fired.  

A Celtic PIg

Young Boar: Navajo Wheel clay; brown glazing, layered.