Rachel and Eric on sat 5 sep 98
One time, fresh back from my first trip to Oaxaca with my mind full
of all those wild pots they fire in bon fires I wanted to give it a try. I
built myself a Morrocan style water jug out of Rod's Bod and bisque fired
it up at the campus studio. (Didn't figure I knew nearly enough about clay
or fire to just straight bon fire it out of leather hard.)
I picked it up after the bisque and took it out to a place that a
friend was living in the country. Old farm house, lots if fields and waste
wood around. I was really pumped up to fire this pot in a bon fire had been
anticipating it all week, obsessed really. But it was windy as hell when I
got out there. Behind the house was an ancient cattle barn, peaked tin roof,
weathered wood. That's where I'll fire, plenty of room. And there wasn't
much wind inside.
I put my pot in a bed of hay and piled it over with old wood, then
dropped the match. Wasn't long after the flames started eating up that hay
that I stopped to have a look around. Old barn, all wood, piles of hay, my
flames starting to leap high, sparks flying, drafts coming in though the holes.
UHH OHH!
Now fully awake I run fast, got a bucket of water and... chased
sparks. Cause I sure wasn't going to put my bon-fire out. Didn't know, that
pot might just turn out to be the coolest thing I ever made.
The fire gods where on my side that day and kept things in check
(not my heart rate). They took only one small tribute, my Morrocan water
jug, which came out of the fire in many more pieces than when it went in.
Eric Mindling & Rachel Werling
Manos de Oaxaca
AP 1452
Oaxaca, Oax.
CP 68000
M E X I C O
http://www.foothill.net/~mindling
fax 011 52 (952) 1-4186
email: rayeric@antequera.com
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