Tony mindling on fri 27 sep 02
Oaxacan Clay Workshop: Thursday, Day 5.
There is something that happens when you are so engrossed in what you are
doing and what is around you. We have been fully focused on the challenge of
making our bowls, trying to sit comfortably on the floor, watching our
teachers, soaking in the life of the courtyard. And in the evenings at the
hostel, with no television, radio, computer, chores or kids the hours pass
by in languished bliss - walking, reading, sitting around and chatting after
dinner to the chorus of crickets.
What happens is that time moves differently. It moves like it did when you
were a kid and summer vacation seems an eternity. Every moment has been so
enthralling that each moment seems endless.
You have that time sense this morning because we have to pack our bags and
say adios to our hostel on the edge of the village. Someone will say, "Has
it only been five days?" And the response will come, "We've done so much it
seems like it has been much longer." Your internal feeling of how much time
has passed won't line up with the calendar.
Today in San Marcos we pull out the elbow grease, the teachers hand around
small, very hard stones and we set to the quiet, steady, focused work of
burnishing.
Yesterday afternoon before we left San Marcos we all dipped our hands in
brick red cream and smeared this all over our bowls. Then we rubbed it in
with a corncob and carefully set the bowls down, upside down. Today this
slip has firmed up and is ready to polish. For some this is agony, for
others it is Zen. I happen to be in the Zen burnishing camp. It is
entrancing. And frustrating.
As with everything we've seen this week, above everything what matters is
technique. Polishing a pot with a stone seems straight forward enough. But
how come when our teachers do it the pattern is exquisite and the luster
gorgeous, while when we do it the slip wants to roll up on our stones?
The answer, of course, is practice. They've been at it since they were ten,
and they've got 200 generations of teachers behind them. This is hard to
match in a week.
But we have come to taste, not to master.
In the afternoons we say, "hasta pronto," see you soon to our teachers and
the others in the household. We now leave them in peace to shuck corn, work
on their own pots and perhaps comment on our styles of dress. The bowls need
to dry for a couple of days. We need to get back to the modern world (do we
really?) and check the e-mail, hit the ATM machine, drink a mocha, call
home, veg out, find a newspaper.
I drop you off in Oaxaca. Go wild on the town tonight or hibernate like a
bear the instant you get to your room. Tomorrow we start exploring a few
more pottery villages laying around out there.
For more info drop Eric a line rayeric@RNET.com.mx or take a peek at
www.manos-de-oaxaca.com.
Session 1: Feb 2-10, 2003
Session 2: March 16-24, 2003
9-day workshop fee is $1,150 with 7-8 participants, $1,380 with 5-6.
Fee includes hotel Sun-Mon nights, most meals, all materials, museum
entrances, local transport in private van, 2 guides and 2 instructors. It's
up to your charm to win the hot tortillas.
Short Course: December 15-21, 2002 (this is for you school teachers who have
been requesting a workshop that lines up with vacation)
6-day workshop fee is $890 with 7-8 participants, $1,085 with 5-6.
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