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u.p. kiln and the new greenfield village pottery

updated thu 9 nov 06

 

Gary Navarre on wed 8 nov 06


Hay Crew,

Where has all that cold weather gone? Maybe I can still get a few more
stones to fill in the pignose foundation while out snipping greens. Last
time I did anything on the kiln was last week and left it off about
here...

http://public.fotki.com/GindaUP/ca/kpap/hbgma06ac/bmf.html (and next)

Geeze, it is warm, it just started raining. I'm all fired up to go cut
more limbs in this Hunters Moon like a night ago. Me and Olof got home
and he wanted to go for a hike out back so I took my tools along for when
we got to a stand of Balsam and Spruce near the gravel pit. We made it
easier this time by using Tager's old 8' leather leash instead of the
short trainer so while I'm crawling on the ground under the low stuff
Olof can sniff around close and not jurk my hands away from snipping the
scrap out. Even lopping overhead he stayed close pretty good. I like
working on making kiln fuel and brush in the woods on a fully moon lit
night but was a tad scart without a dog, and I'm almost fearless. Tager
and I've seen a bear twice on this property and this turned up last
week....

http://public.fotki.com/GindaUP/mup/upc/bearscrapingforbugs2.html

While we were out in the moon light Olof stood guard and barked a few
times at something so we sat real quiet but none of the Havalonian Emu
Army found us. Ended up lopping too much to carry this time and we went
back for the van. Today we took a second bunch of bundles of Spruce and
Balsam to the greenhouse for a total close to 200 lbs. ($30) and have a
couple bundles of sticks for kiln stoking and some twigs for the Koie
cooker. Not bad for just a few hours here and there while walking the dog
to relax after 8 hours making Christmas freight go away at Wally World,
eh?.

On that last trip down to Mom's Ryan Forrey with The Henry Ford
Greenfield Village Pottery invited me to see their woodfired kiln and get
a potters tour. The stills were posted in fotki and now the beginning of
the videos are on youtube at...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TDPVq6Hia8

It's another long one but has a good cutoff point for the rest of the
tour. Sometimes youtube gets so busy only part of someones video loads for
me but I just go back later. I saw some really neat stuff on the trip down
below so now this winter I'll see what comes of it. I shot 9Gb to edit and
maybe learn something new about making movies. I've always liked learning
something new that I can use for my art. But many times I've wondered how
on earth can doing what I'm doing that has nothing to do with in the clay
making pots at the wheel be of any use to my art. Now I see what those no
clay times were about, to learn things like how to live like any other
mook in the valley. Now the trick will be to turn that experience into
art. Problly end up being the same old cups, bowls, and spoon pots as
before, eh? Stay in there!


G in Da UP
Navarre Pottery
Navarre Enterprises
Norway, Michigan, USA
http://public.fotki.com/GindaUP/
http://www.youtube.com/user/GindaUP