Mud (with pictures)

Before I was deployed, I (it's Maia's fault. I'm certain I can blame her for my doing something I've wanted to do since I was small), started throwing pots.

Enrolled in the class, bought the tools, started to take clay and make things. My first effort was a pinch-pot which looked (still does) like a baked potato. Moved to the wheel. A nice Lockerbie. Heavy, lots of mass. One kicked it to make it move. These wheels had a small motor on them, so one could, if tired, or lazy, or lacking the co-ordination to keep the wheel moving; the clay stable and one's body on the bench, just step on the pedal for a moment and give it a bit more speed.

Which would taper off.

Three weeks later I was activated. In the two-years since then I have not made much time for clay. Maia, after I left, convinced my landlord to join her in the class. He got hooked. Started playing with glazes, can sit down and turn out a narrow mouthed pot in minutes. We have one of his tea-pots in the kitchen even now. For Christmas this year he gave me a pudding basin. THe basin is a copy, from a mold, of a Bauer bowl he, or we, own.

But I remembered. When I was in town, I'd go by the school and throw something. Oddly enough I not only hadn't forgotten, I was better than I had any right to be. Centering (one of the tricky things, in a simple way) always came pretty easy to me. It was lifting and controlling the clay which gave me fits. I pull, which makes the clay less plastic, and it tears. But when I came back to the wheel (after none months away) I threw better pots. People (who had come to pottery, after I was gone) would ask me advice. It was useful too (they got better from it, even though they had more time with mud in their fingers than I did, some of them were better throwers too).

We moved to SLO. Poly has a craft-center. Anyone can go in and work there. Students pay less than non-students, but it's open to the public. I threw a few things there. Maia has a really nice clay. Forgiving, tolerant of my heavy hands. I wasted some things, because I was in and out of town. I'd throw them, and not get back in time to glaze them. I think, of the 10, or so, pots I got off the wheel, I have one.

The wheels here are crap. Itty-bitty electric things. No kick, so a small goose isn't possible. And without the flywheel, they run on the motor all the time. Fine-tuning the speed isn't possible. I also had to learn to deal with clay that never slows down. Feh.

Last fall I bought some clay. Electric Brown, from Laguna Clay. Interesting stuff. I hated it. It felt like warm chocolate in my hands (which aren't as strong as they were... the Reiter's) and wanted to be worked as dry as possible, but was grabby unless very wet. I made a cup. It broke in the bisque.

Last week I went back. While I was working I took pictures. Pottery I'll point to individual shots, but that is all of them. The gallery will keep getting new ones.

This is now aged clay (clay gets more tractable as it ages). It wedged easily. It centered well. It rose without too much hassle (it's still grabby as hell).

So I worked it. Raised a post, and pushed it down. It was centered, but I was trying to get a feel for it. Trying to see how stable it was, how much it was going to drag when my hands got too dry. Trying to see just what too dry was.

And I threw a bowl. Good sized, heavy sided. The kind of thing one mixes in.

Bowl

Wedged some more clay. The bowl had given me trouble because I had a bubble. Bubbles feel odd. Everyone gets them. Before one's hands and mind learn to feel them, it seems as if the clay is warped, off center, crabbing on the wheel. Fixing them is easy, one takes a needle tool, and pokes holes in the bubble, pinching the clay into itself, and then compressing as the piece is lifted some more.

I want to make sake cups. To do that I need to get better at both thin pieces, and at throwing consistent sizes. I know a potter who can whip out a cup, start to finish, with handles and decoration, in ten minutes. He's been doing this for decades. The funny thing is the internal size. Somehow he decides what the volume is going to be, and voila they are. Short and stout. Tall and thin. Tall and stout, all of them hold about the same (they are deceptive too. I have a wonderful beer pot, save that it holds something like 20 ounces. One bottle of beer looks lost, but I dare not keep it full).

To work on this I raised a post, and then threw from it. When I was done with that cup, I cut it off. I then pushed the post down, raised it back up and made another one. After three cups I started to make a small vase-like thing. I've not made anything thinner, to date. The neck is off center, but I did manage to close it up.

I threw five pieces, from two lumps of clay. None of them were quite what I wanted, but I did manage to get a solid feel for this clay. I think I'll like it. It isn't as finicky as porcelain, but it has some of the same buttery qualities. It slips through the fingers well. Smooth and solid, when it isn't too dry. I think I'll be able to get it thin. With practice I'll be able to work it large.

This afternoon I'll go in and trim the pieces, they've been in the damp-room, getting leathery.

Then the bisquing, and the glazing. I have some brown I want to make up, to see if I can capture some of the chocolate qualities of the raw clay.

Grab bag

The Grab Bag has been edited, and added to.


It has a couple shots of a heron, another poppy picture or two, and a series of a crawdad.

Hope

Recently I pointed out a judge had ruled the prisoners at Gitmo were shit out of luck. That so long as the Prez. elected to keep them, they were gonna have to stay put; and they had no rights to appeal to anyone for redress.

I also said it would be interesting to see what the judge who handed those cases off to him had to say in the rest of the cases. She handed down her decision today.

Interesting is the word. Diametrically opposed is the description.

In re Guantanamo Detainee Cases (02-299) Ruling.pdf and Order.pdf she said, in part, “The court concludes that the petitioners have stated valid claims under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution and that the procedures implemented by the government to confirm that petitioners are ‘enemy combatants’ subject to indefinite detention violate the petitioners’ rights to due process of law. The court also holds that at lease some of the petitioners have stated valid claims under the Third Geneva Convention.”

As Scotus Blog points out, this does not mean anyone will be released anytime soon. This ruling says those prisoners are entitled to court access, can file habeas petitions and, by extention, any other such forms of redress as any other prisoner may make.

So we have rulings in conflict. There are also more petitions in the pipeline, which will have to be ruled on. The possibility exists that a third holding may come down.

Looking at the two rulings I see hope. Green's ruling (the most recent) is more in keeping, as I see it, with the Supreme Courts finding, which led to these reviews, which means if the question gets moved to them (which it might not, the DOJ can, I believe, petition that the District Court sit on the question, en banc, it can also just take the hit on this set, and try to use the more restrictive ruling as precedent in the future. I don't think that's sound strategy, since the conflicting rulings are both in the same District, so the precidential value is weakened, as future plaintiffs will certainly use today's ruling as support for their appeals [which would be based on the more potent Supreme Court rulings in Rasul/Al Odah v. U.S. and Hamdi v. Rumsfeld).

Since I see this as closer to (but probably more broad than) the Supreme Court's intent, I can see them granting cert, if it gets appealed past the District Court. If that happens, I think the Feds lose, probably not as thoroughly as this ruling spanked them, but the whole store they were given a couple of weeks ago is likely to see a lot departments shuttered.

That hope thing, it's tempered.

I don't think I can add anything to this. It's probably the most depressing thing I read in ages.

I bothers me more than Bertie "Go ahead and break their fingers" Gonzalez being nominated.

Really.

Students say 1st Amendment, "goes too far."

Silliness

I decided, before I run off to play with solidified mud, to run the comment stats program.

One user has some 4 percent of all comments.

Then another 15 come in with about 2 percent.

With a gradual diminuition.

Without further ado.

( The Stats )

For those who care I made 444 comments, so I own about 25 percent of the comments.