gail sheffield on mon 16 aug 99
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I promised you a second ceramic experience=3B actually, it was and wasn't. =
Cuenca
is a small city of 300,000 or so, the location of the Paul Rivet Foundation,
dedicated to teaching and promoting ceramics. Ceramics Monthly did an =
article
on the foundation, and its restored colonial house, in the November, 1998,
issue, and a related article (about a sculpture located in front of the =
house)
in the May, 1998, issue. We toured the facility, visited a class of =
children in
their first ceramics class, and were wined and dined royally by the =
directors
(thanks to Joe's connections). We did not really see much pottery there. =
They
did, one night, entertain us with some traditional things done at =
celebrations.
The castillo was a structure approximately 20 feet hight, with lots of =
little
wheels covered with fireworks. Not outside of our experience. The other =
two,
however, were. Globos are sort of kite-type things, built like a cube, a =
couple
of feet across each plane, covered with different colors of translucent =
paper,
and with a fuel soaked rag(?) suspended at the bottom, the only side which =
is
open. When lit, the heat makes them like little hot air balloons, and they =
are
released one by one. They gently rise up into the night sky, and waft off =
into
the direction the wind takes them. Because they follow the same path, =
there is
a line of increasingly smaller (because farther away) beautiful, glowing =
=22stars=22
of different colors. Really impressive. Presumably, when the fire goes =
out,
they simply settle to the ground (or set the town on fire, take your pick).
The other entertainment was the =22vaca loca,=22 or crazy cow. A man puts =
over his
head and shoulders a pinata-like structure shaped like a cow. Its spine and
probably other parts as well are laden with fireworks. He prances around =
and
darts to and away from the crowd, often shooting rockets or other fireworks =
at
the audience, who must scatter to escape. It was actually lots of fun=3B I =
can
see that happening in our suit-happy country=21
Well, the next episode will describe a real pottery experience.
Gail Sheffield
Covington, LA
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