Maud Friedland z"l

After many years- an exhibition of Maud's wonderful lustre pots at Bet Binyamini [R. Ha'Amal, S.Tel Aviv]. Photographs really don't do them justice- go and have a look while they're on show. I also have a few pots on display ,and may be doing a short porcelain workshop there in the near future.
I have just agreed to have advertisements on this blog and on some of my Youtube videos- I do hope this doesn't bother anyone,but if you click on an ad,I make a negligible sum of money: as Nanny used to say,"Every penny makes the water warmer": so far,after a week or so on Youtube,I've made 6 cents. That's before tax.

Thermocouple Reincarnation

Spent a rather invigorating day rummaging through dusty boxes of shattered thermocouple parts, slicing,fixing and recombining elements, ending up gratifyingly with five restored and functioning thermocouples [only 4 in picture- 5th was a K type,being tested in small bisc kiln firing]. Note use of thin copper sheet to stuff/jam porcelain tubes into housings. Two are for Tel Hai,saving the department over 1000 shekels...

Here We Are Again

.... after a brief pause in blogging,with a rather Cubist panorama of the studio. The year's wine is made,bottled and partly drunk- a bumper crop this year, close to 40 bottles, twice what the vine has been giving for the last couple of years.
Not a lot has happened in the studio [hence lack of blog] since the last salt firing at Tel Hai,but now I see a few gaps in the formerly-overstuffed gallery shelves, the Holidays are behind us,the succah is dismantled, Minerco have Coleman porcelain again,and even my French clay- out of stock for 6 months, is reputed to be in the country,though not cleared through customs yet- all of which suggest that a gradual return to making pots is indicated. Tel Hai starts next week,with the Symposium coming at Chanukah [news of Guests soon] and a new apprentice waiting to start in the studio: I have plans to make some Chanukiot this year,and also to take another run at the crystal glazes with my new porcelain [and new kiln elements]. Happy New Year!