Clay musings

Namaskar 🙏
Probably time for an update on the blog, keep posting to Instagram and Facebook but need to keep this going.
Last post was about the trip to the village and since then it has been pottery stuff happening.
So I am giving the wheel a rest for a couple of days and heading down some interesting pathways with some slab work.
Started with leaves as there are some amazing leaves here, the fig tree has some of the most enormous leaves for a tree that I have seen. Also some rather interesting figs, that are nearly ripe. Will be good to taste some ripe ones if the dogs don’t eat them first.
So the first leaf exercise was the large slab platter,

followed by a couple of smaller bowls with leaf inserts.
I then tried a cylindrical leaf folded around itself and cuffed at the base

. ....maybe.
Followed by a leafy box

as asked for by a friend.
Then I headed out into geometric country with an interesting vase for flower arranging.

This was an interesting piece and I am leaning about keeping things straight and clean is not as easy as it looks.
Then I started work on a cubic tea pot that turned out rather well I think,

then spent today trying to sort out a suitable cup. I tried a pentagonal object

but a: too large and b: more bowl than cup suitable for tea. The I tried using the same design as the tea pot and surprise it worked,

but again too big to go with the pot, so have cut the sides out for a much smaller one to be put together tomorrow.
On another front, the owner of Aura Pottery Anuja

is holding a “Winter Day” next weekend in celebration of her late husband Atul’s birthday. He passed away unexpectedly back in February this year. There is going to be a number of artists displaying and selling works in all sorts of media and there will be food stalls of all shapes and sizes. 15% of all takings gets donated to a local school that Atul had been sponsoring and supporting. I unfortunately happened to mention my past life as working in the films and television arena as well as my blogging and photos. So now I have been roped in to help with making a video and photographic record of the day. Going to be loads of fun. I will be working alongside a young man by the name of Sidak

who is the official company photographer. Wish I had lugged my good camera along now.
It has been a very interesting time communicating with people here, Prince our studio assistant

speaks little English but knows a lot of pottery related words so we can communicate somewhat, it is getting better as I am starting to use Google Translate a bit more and learning some Hindi words and phrases.
Til next post...

Sukhino Bhava
(I wish you happiness)