Morning report:

After a couple cups of coffee, I toddled down to the ceramics studio to work on my mug. You will recall, perhaps, that my decorative goal was to replicate the stone carving labyrinth on the side of the mug.

In the previous two versions of the mug, I went ahead and carved the labyrinth while the clay was still moist and workable. This didn’t work as well as I had hoped, because in the course of finishing the mug, I’d mush the labyrinth a bit and have to re-carve parts of it on a regular basis. So yesterday I decided to let it dry a bit and then carve the labyrinth. This morning seemed the opportune time to get it done.

The mug had completely set up, so there was no question of messing it up by handling it. I grabbed my little tools and a water spray bottle and got to work.

Here’s what I found interesting: whereas previously I just scooped out the wet clay, now I was actually having to carve the path of the labyrinth into the dry surface. I had to proceed slowly so as not to break the path outlines, and although I could wet the surface to make it a little easier, I was still scratching a little bit at a time. And that was more or less what the original artist/priest/person did on the prehistoric rock carving from Spain.

Another difference was that in the wet clay I was able to draw out the entire labyrinth and then follow the path. In the dry clay, I had to plan how to scratch the paths so that they hooked up and flowed correctly. I ended up drawing it on a piece of paper and shading in the paths I had done.

I started in the center with the round mound and proceeded outward. It was interesting that after I got the first three rounds done, I began to realize that the figure was placed so high on the mug that I would run out of room for the last four rounds. So, just like the prehistoric artist before me, I had to make the last four rounds a lot thinner than the rest of the course. I went ahead and scratched in those four thin lines at the top; that made sure that everything cohered and jumped.

The bottom part was another challenge. One reason I chose this particular petroglyph as a tattoo was its solution of the opening of the labyrinth: a rather phallic entrance area, flanked by a squarish area (with a breast-like engraving in it) and a semicircular area. As I approached that area, I wished I had printed out a copy of the thing to bring with me so I could approximate it as closely as possible.

Then, of course, it dawned on me that I had a copy on me. Literally. I just pulled up my shorts and studied my upper thigh. Should have done it sooner, because the balance of the thing that appeals to me so much relies on a specific shaping of the courses, but you know what? This one is mine.

Here’s a photo:

It has to be fired, which will shrink it a bit more, and then glazed. I’m thinking a dark greenish glaze, if one is available.

My only concern at this point, other than hoping I got the clay right throughout so that it doesn’t blow up in the kiln, is that the etching is deep enough for the labyrinth to show up through the glaze. I’m pretty sure I’m going to lose the dot and line in the bottom left area. Maybe I can paint that one with glaze. I’ll check with Andy.

All right, it was too big, so I threw it in the slop bin. I’ll start over tomorrow.

And my session with the bassists/marimba was postponed until tomorrow. So I’ll be creative tomorrow. Not so much today.

I went to check on my mug today, and it’s enormous. It’s a vase. It has not shrunk at all.

Nevertheless, I took it down off the drying shelf and worked on the labyrinth, cleaning that up. I didn’t have a lot of time, but I got that done.

Tomorrow, I’ll have to go in and whittle down the handle. Or maybe start over.

Actually, tomorrow I get to sit in on a runthrough of “Dance” for double bass duo and marimba.

I roused myself this afternoon and went to the ceramics studio, where I made a mug.

Here’s the deal: twenty years ago (!) I made a mug at GHP. It’s quite a lovely thing. Here it is:

It’s very beautiful. I think it at least approaches, if not attains, wabi-sabi.

So I figure, what the heck, every twenty years, I’ll make a mug. It’s good if you can be creative on a schedule.

I‘m not sure how this new one is going to turn out. I calculated for shrinkage (13%), and aimed for a mug 3.5″ across and about 6″ high. I engraved a seven-circuit labyrinth on it and attached a big thick handle. That’s where I left it, to dry a bit.

It seems awfully big and clunky, not unlike the second mug I made in 1988 or so, which didn’t shrink as much as I needed it to and remains a big huge heavy ugly thing which sits in the back of the cabinet and never comes out.

In fact, I made this one once, didn’t like it, and crunched it and started over. Andy was kind enough to stop by and give me a couple of construction tips that helped a little, but basically it’s too big. But who knows, maybe it will shrink to my calculated size by tomorrow and I can buff up the labyrinth engraving a little and fire it.

If it doesn’t actually fall apart. I’m not sure that I got all the joints joined together. If there are air pockets embedded where there should be clay, the whole thing could just crack apart in the kiln. That would throw me off my twenty-year schedule.

But if working here for 20+ years has taught me anything, it’s that art is what you salvage when you stop working on it. We’ll take another look tomorrow and see if I’ve managed any art at all.

Today I designed two little graphic thingies.

The first is for the t-shirt we give out to those students who managed to accumulate 100 AR™ points during the school year:

The other was a quick invitation to the Red Parrot Café, a morale booster I do in the media center: first thing Friday morning, teachers can come in for a nice, cold drink of Sunny D, complete with a splash of grenadine and a paper umbrella.

Not much, but hey, it was creative.