What's Going On

I've been making a series of blue-and-white porcelain agateware bowls for a special order; here they are after their bisc firing,looking rather astronomical.


Sydney has been helping his friend Nevo get this year's olives ready for the press...



Helen has been baking...




My friend Mike Leaf has been painting...




I made a promising batch of 30-odd bottles of wine from our venerable vine,and am awaiting a visit from the vine doctor to see what the red and black spots on the leaves are...Meanwhile,according to local tradition,Winter hasn't started- there are still leaves on the vine...




For the last month or so we have been living in a dust-storm with intermittent water stoppages while our street was excavated [repeatedly] and water and sewage pipes replaced..





...and I've been having fun refiring some of Meir Moheban's pots from the last Anagama that got covered in ash but didn't reach a high enough temperature to melt it- cone 9 seems to do the job - the before/after pictures here aren't [obviously] the same pots,but give a good idea of the change after refiring...



The road finally got resurfaced...




...and my most recent exploit,fired yesterday- some experiments with gold lustre and wax resist; for the inquisitive- I waxed the design onto bisced porcelain,then glazed with a clear glaze and fired,then painted lustre over the design,giving a matte design on a shiny background [after lustre fire to 750 degrees]. I'm not sure where this is going [the 100 shekel cup?] or even if I like the effect,but the idea was interesting...