Brass Hooks, Sidelong Looks

Aegir: sculpture mix; blue, green,and white glazes;
copper wire; fishhooks.
20-minute exercise with model.
(I overglazed, actually, but later I realized that I like the gloppy, soggy, flowing look with this piece.)

Postscript:

Reprise/New shots of an old piece.  I like the angles.

Njord Rising

Njord: stoneware; floating blue and transparent brown glazing.

Reprise: Aegir, Sea-God

Aegir: sculpture mix; blue, green,and white glazes; copper wire; fishhooks. 20-minute exercise with model.  

I've posted shots of this piece first here and collectively here.

Fragments From Bacchylides

Though Honor shifts to any shape,
And man's skills cannot be told,
One outranks them all: the mind
Discretion moves to what's at hand.

----------

Yet resilient Theseus
Did not flinch:
Poising tall
On the planked deck,
He dived an arc
To his welcome warm
In the sea's glades.
Minos, bit to the quick . . . .

----------

Works of the gods are wonders
Seaworthy men confirm.

----------

This for the last time:
Profit can crush
Profoundest minds.

----------

One writer picks another's brains--
Call it tradition:
Taking the gates of a new song
Is no small job.

----------

One criterion, one approach
Leads on to man's success:
The soul that sees out
Life in self-delight.
Who hounds his wits
At the heels of crowding cares
And pummels his mind with what's to come,
Drives dead work through the days and nights . . . .
Throttle your heart with sorrow,
All the gladness dies.

----------

. . . when she curves that smooth arm,
And flicks some wine at the saucers--
Just with a neat turn of her wrist--
Our flute-girl serves her bachelors.

----------

Never underhand,
The words that Wisdom
Resonates in man.

----------

The gifts of the Muses,
Goals of a hard campaign,
Do not surrender
To all who handle arms.

----------

*Bacchylides was a Greek poet of the fifth century B.C.  You can find these fragments and more with an appropriate scholarly treatment in . . .

Bacchylides, Complete Poems, 
Translated, with a Note to the New Edition, by Robert Fagles,
With a Foreward by Sir Maurice Bowra,
Introduction and Notes by Adam M. Parry,
Yale University Press: New Haven & London,
1998.

Hektor: sculpture mix, pit-fired.
(The red is from kelp-wrappings before I put the piece into the pit, I'm fairly sure.)

Aegir, Ready

Aegir: sculpture mix; blue, green,and white glazes; copper wire; fishhooks. 20-minute exercise with model. (I overglazed, actually, but later I realized that I like the gloppy, soggy, flowing look with this piece.)

Aegir is one of the Northern European sea-gods from pagan times; he and his wife Ran use hooks and nets, fishing for the souls of fisherfolk, sailors, merchants, and passengers upon those cold northern waters. (Njord is another Norse god, though he has more to do with ships, harbors, and anchorages.) Aegir is known for the beer he brews; the Norse gods, led by Odin, Thor, and Frey, often spend weeks at a time hoisting tankards and horns with Aegir and his sea-folk in that cave beneath the sea.

Being the guest of Aegir, if you're not a Norse deity, just may mean you've gone and drowned yourself. At least the beer is reputed to be good.