Candice Roeder on mon 13 feb 06
I'm planning to attend a one week workshop this summer at La Meridiana in Tuscany.
I've never travelled abroad, and have some questions about the facility, what to expect, what to bring, wear, etc.
I plan to spend an additional 10 days or so in Italy, and could certainly use some pointers.
(Marcia Selsor has been there, I know, but I don't know how to contact her...perhaps you're reading this, Marcia?)
Feel free to contact me directly.
Thanks,
Candice
CJRoeder@att.net
Jenny Lewis on tue 14 feb 06
Hi Candice
I'm going there too!- for a Raku week in April. Looking forward to it so
much, as it's ages since I had a holiday abroad, and more ages since I have done
any Raku firing. Before the course I will be in Florence for 4 days, and
after it Pisa for 4 days. I've been to Florence before but not for many many
years.
When will you be going? Summer in Italy is HOT so you will certainly be able
to travel light as far as clothes are concerned. Where else do you plan to
visit?
I have been checking guidebooks (library so far, haven't bought any yet,
there's a HUGE choice) and also the web.
Fire any questions this way, in case I can come up with any useful answers.
I have relatives who have visited Italy several times so even if I don't know
I can certainly ask the advisors!
Jenny Lewis
in Eastleigh, UK
May Luk on tue 14 feb 06
Hello Candice and Jenny;
I would look out for the mosquitoes when travelling in
Italy in the summer. They always know that you are new
blood. They have this electrical repellent that’s plug
into the outlets. They sell it at the local hardware
store. They usually come with your room. I would take
some sort of mosquito repellent just in case. You will
sleep much better.
About.com has a very good Italian travel forum.
Everything you need to know about travelling to Italy
is there.
Book the tickets online to the Uffizi, so you don't
have to wait in line during high seasons, but you
probably know that.
You are going to have a good time. Just don’t expect
‘Under the Tuscan Sun’. If you didn’t see the movie,
good on you.
Have a good trip!!
May
Fred Hagen on tue 14 feb 06
Candice,
You might want to call Francis Granzotto at KVCC because he took a course in Italy last summer --perhaps the same place and he stayed longer to look up some of his relatives. He should be able to tell you about anything you might want to know.
Are you going to be teaching what you learn next fall? :)
Fred Hagen
Candice Roeder wrote:
I'm planning to attend a one week workshop this summer at La Meridiana in Tuscany.
I've never travelled abroad, and have some questions about the facility, what to expect, what to bring, wear, etc.
I plan to spend an additional 10 days or so in Italy, and could certainly use some pointers.
(Marcia Selsor has been there, I know, but I don't know how to contact her...perhaps you're reading this, Marcia?)
Feel free to contact me directly.
Thanks,
Candice
CJRoeder@att.net
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Fredrick Paget on tue 14 feb 06
Nan and I traveled to Italy with Marcia Selsor about five years ago
and stayed at La Meridana for about 10 days. It was a great
experience and a very good place to stay. At that time the studio was
still under construction and there were no decent wheels so the
course was mostly handbuilding using a new slab roller. I can see
from the pictures in the new brochure that Pietro is continually
adding more and new things.
Pietro is the genial host and owner and he has a coterie of
instructors that change from week to week. The food in Italy is of
course super. The lady chef at La Meridana out does herself with a
different menu every day. We had to provide our own food for
breakfast and dinner but large lunches were provided. We had an
apartment there with kitchenette and we were taken to town a couple
of times to shop at the market for food.
La Meridana is 6 km. from the town of Certaldo over a country road
(paved) and there is no store within a couple or km. either way so
plan ahead.
The property has about 3 or 4 apartments on site and another place up
a side road about 1 km. where extra people stayed.We also saw Piza
and Florence and After the tour we stayed in Florence for a few days
and took a train over to Faenza once to see the museum there but it
was closed on Monday so we missed that but bought a nice Majolica
plate from an artist who was open, Faenza has many potters who do
Majolica.
--
From Fred &Nan Paget,
No Tengo Rancho,
Marin County,
California, USA
fredrick@well.com
Marta Matray Gloviczki on wed 15 feb 06
this following e-mail is from the clayart archieves,
dated october 2003 when i came back from a wksp in la
meridiana.
wishing you a great time there, say hi to pietro!
cheers, marta
>>
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
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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