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my trip to italy

updated sat 25 oct 03

 

Marta Matray Gloviczki on thu 23 oct 03


my trip to italy was great!
i arrived to beautiful PISA to meet the group of the
workshop.
the 2 weeks wksp was organized by archie bray, led by
josh deweese, and was held at la meridiana in
certaldo, toscany.
perfect, isnt it? you cannot beat that...
and pisa is sooo beautiful!
from the window of the hotelroom we could see the
leaning tower, (but we walked there too :-))
---it was just a block away.
wow...!
the next day was the historic blackout in italy. it
meant no shower (no running water) no electricity and
NO CAPPUCCINO!
and no train taking us to certaldo either...
so pietro, the head of la meridiana sent cars to pick
us up and take us for a ride thru gorgeous toscany. we
arrived at the villa 'il testimonio' where i stayed in
the tower with two of my roomies from montana.
from the window of our tower we could see in the
distance SAN GIMIGNANO, the town of medieval towers
built on a hilltop of a small etruscan settlement
dating from the hellenistic period (third to second
century b.c.)
every day we did climb out to the roof to enjoy this
fantastic scienery...and the olive trees...and the
fields of grape everywhere...
the workshop started the next day at the ceramic
studio of LA MERIDIANA

http://www.pietro.net/

from our villa it was a 10-15 minutes walk - trail
hike type-- good excersize!
the workshop was great, josh demonstrated every day
making lovely pots and some huge ones too and we had
the rest of the day for trying our hands in a super
black clay from france.
...unfortunately that gorgeous blackness burned out in
the bisque...
than it was fired in the gaskiln with glazes.
the second week we got a white clay and that
was once-fired in the sodakiln
(without bisque)
piled up on top of each other separated by waddings.
i loved the color and the texture of every piece in
that kiln!
terry davies did the demo and the firing in the
sodakiln, spraying in the soda. his fabulous results
can be seen on his website:

http://www.terrydavies.it/

and we had a third demonstrator for a whole day, the
famous "raku dolce" artist: giovanni cimatti.
the night before he made a bowl for everybody in our
group, and we used his different terra sigillatas to
apply with his methods.
after we decorated "our" bowls, we loaded them into a
raku kiln, fired them up slowly and later reduced them
in sawdust for about a minute or two...
to see cimatti`s work go to:

http://www.adhikara.com/cimatti.htm

i am full of stories about this trip, there is no way
i`ll be able to tell you all about it, but just one
more thing:
i took the train to FAENZA to visit the
international museum of ceramics where i had three of
my works in an ongoing exhibition there, titled:
"form, between continuity and innovation".
...and, since the museum chose one of my pieces for
their permanent collection (YEAH!) they were so very
nice to me, they treated me royally...and so, i think
that was one of the best highlights during my trip.
:-))
if you ever go to italy, dont miss the faenza museum.
they have an unbelievable collection of precolombian
pots, roman and greek pots, asian pots, renaissance,
majolika, modern(picasso, matisse, chagall, etc)
the best of european ceramics collection, winners of
their yearly international competitions since 1935!
i only stayed two days there and couldnt see
everything i wanted!
ok, i think that`s long enough for one read, i`ll tell
you more later,

ciao,
marta
=====
marta matray gloviczki
rochester,mn

http://www.angelfire.com/mn2/marta/
http://users.skynet.be/russel.fouts/Marta.htm
http://www.silverhawk.com/crafts/gloviczki/welcome.html

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Malcolm Schosha on fri 24 oct 03


Marta,

Toscana is such a beautiful place. I have not been there in twenty
years and still miss it! I think that the closest traditional center
for pottery making to Certaldo is the ancient hill town of Montelupo.
They have a museum and a ceramics school, and continue to make
pottery.
http://www.emmeti.it/Welcome/Toscana/Chianti/Montelupo/Musei/Ceramica/
index.it.html

Malcolm Schosha
Brooklyn, NY
......................................

--- In clayart@yahoogroups.com, Marta Matray Gloviczki
wrote:
> my trip to italy was great!
> i arrived to beautiful PISA to meet the group of the
> workshop.
> the 2 weeks wksp was organized by archie bray, led by
> josh deweese, and was held at la meridiana in
> certaldo, toscany.
> perfect, isnt it? you cannot beat that...
> and pisa is sooo beautiful!
> from the window of the hotelroom we could see the
> leaning tower, (but we walked there too :-))
> ---it was just a block away.
> wow...!
> the next day was the historic blackout in italy. it
> meant no shower (no running water) no electricity and
> NO CAPPUCCINO!
> and no train taking us to certaldo either...
> so pietro, the head of la meridiana sent cars to pick
> us up and take us for a ride thru gorgeous toscany. we
> arrived at the villa 'il testimonio' where i stayed in
> the tower with two of my roomies from montana.
> from the window of our tower we could see in the
> distance SAN GIMIGNANO, the town of medieval towers
> built on a hilltop of a small etruscan settlement
> dating from the hellenistic period (third to second
> century b.c.)
> every day we did climb out to the roof to enjoy this
> fantastic scienery...and the olive trees...and the
> fields of grape everywhere...
> the workshop started the next day at the ceramic
> studio of LA MERIDIANA
>
> http://www.pietro.net/
>
> from our villa it was a 10-15 minutes walk - trail
> hike type-- good excersize!
> the workshop was great, josh demonstrated every day
> making lovely pots and some huge ones too and we had
> the rest of the day for trying our hands in a super
> black clay from france.
> ...unfortunately that gorgeous blackness burned out in
> the bisque...
> than it was fired in the gaskiln with glazes.
> the second week we got a white clay and that
> was once-fired in the sodakiln
> (without bisque)
> piled up on top of each other separated by waddings.
> i loved the color and the texture of every piece in
> that kiln!
> terry davies did the demo and the firing in the
> sodakiln, spraying in the soda. his fabulous results
> can be seen on his website:
>
> http://www.terrydavies.it/
>
> and we had a third demonstrator for a whole day, the
> famous "raku dolce" artist: giovanni cimatti.
> the night before he made a bowl for everybody in our
> group, and we used his different terra sigillatas to
> apply with his methods.
> after we decorated "our" bowls, we loaded them into a
> raku kiln, fired them up slowly and later reduced them
> in sawdust for about a minute or two...
> to see cimatti`s work go to:
>
> http://www.adhikara.com/cimatti.htm
>
> i am full of stories about this trip, there is no way
> i`ll be able to tell you all about it, but just one
> more thing:
> i took the train to FAENZA to visit the
> international museum of ceramics where i had three of
> my works in an ongoing exhibition there, titled:
> "form, between continuity and innovation".
> ...and, since the museum chose one of my pieces for
> their permanent collection (YEAH!) they were so very
> nice to me, they treated me royally...and so, i think
> that was one of the best highlights during my trip.
> :-))
> if you ever go to italy, dont miss the faenza museum.
> they have an unbelievable collection of precolombian
> pots, roman and greek pots, asian pots, renaissance,
> majolika, modern(picasso, matisse, chagall, etc)
> the best of european ceramics collection, winners of
> their yearly international competitions since 1935!
> i only stayed two days there and couldnt see
> everything i wanted!
> ok, i think that`s long enough for one read, i`ll tell
> you more later,
>
> ciao,
> marta
> =====
> marta matray gloviczki
> rochester,mn
>
> http://www.angelfire.com/mn2/marta/
> http://users.skynet.be/russel.fouts/Marta.htm
> http://www.silverhawk.com/crafts/gloviczki/welcome.html
>
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search
> http://shopping.yahoo.com
>
>
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