Grapes

It is very hard to write at the moment.The grapes have just started turning colour on the vine,both poignant and hopeful- what kind of wine will we have this year? Bitter? Sweet?
Helen and I are hunkered down in Safed,under a constant rain of rockets,but in good spirits.Helen has important work to do,helping victims of the attacks and other distressed folk,and is displaying great courage and fortitude.Our children are further south,Benjamin in India.
About the video clip I posted yesterday [did you click and check?]:I have for a long time thought that it would be interesting and instructive to make a collection of short videos showing various aspects of throwing etc. -not just my work,but other Israeli potters,too.I filmed some experimental sequences over the last year,very much in the spirit of this blog [ I hope]-that is,just filming what's there,with minimal equipment,no edits,no angles,not even [yet] a soundtrack,though I think this would help.So everything could be tidied up,but I'm more concerned with the immediacy of the process,starting from the point of 'this would be a good time to film....' - get the camera out,fix the tripod,turn on a few lights,run a check to make sure the framing's [reasonably] O.K.,sit down and throw, or glaze, or whatever.I need to remember to wipe the clay off my finger at the end before pushing 'stop' on the camera.
Not much work is getting done in the studio,as you can imagine,although I have ventured up a couple of times for some calming bead-making- one batch of porcelain,one of red stoneware.The rows of beads look disconcertingly like bullets,the impressed shell decoration also taking on a newer,grimmer connotation.Ah,context,context.