The next round of pottery classes

So I'm halfway through my first pottery class at the London Potter's Guild. I hope my students are enjoying it as much as I am. The next round of class starts next month and the registration is up online. I'm teaching another Friday night class if enough people sign up for it. Each class at the guild needs a minimum of 6 students to go ahead. I should write my instructors bio for the website before I go to bed tonight. 

General Pottery I*
Sean Robinson
7:30-10pm (6wk)
May 10 - June 21

General Pottery I

Teacher: Sean Robinson
Day and Time: Friday 7:30 - 10pm (6wk)
Date: May 10 to June 21

Adult Rate: $120.00 + 15.60 hst = $135.60 + Toolkit
LPG Members: $105.00 + 13.65 hst = $118.65 + Toolkit

This is a comprehensive introduction to working in clay. Learn hand building techniques such as pinching, coiling, soft and hard slab building, and press moulding. Students will also work on the potter’s wheel, and will learn the basics to create their own pieces. The students will end with a collection of their own glazed pieces. * If you are new to pottery, this is the class LPG recommends.

New students need to purchase a $15.00 toolkit.
Toolkit is included in your registration cost.

http://www.londonpottersguild.org/offer/classes.htm

Last class

I really need to blog more often. This is my first time using my phone to blog so I will keep it short. I've been teaching a class with Kyle Thomson (http://imakepottery.wordpress.com/) a fellow Sheridan grad at the London Clay Art Centre. Here is some of our class glazing their pots.
In a few weeks I get my first solo class and I'm very excited about it.

But now for the first time I understand

I did a quick search for a Song poem online for this post and this one jumped out at me. I feel it relates to some of the paintings I have been working on lately. But anyway I heard some interesting news this week. A Song dynasty bowl recently sold at auction for 26.7 million U.S. dollars. That is an astonishing amount of money and is hard to comprehend. It's interesting to consider how many bowls could be purchased from practicing makers today. Here is a poem from the Song Dynasty by Wang Li.

"In my dream I scratch my head and get up and listen.
I listen and listen, until the dawn.
All my life I have heard rain,
and I am an old man;
but now for the first time I understand
the sound of spring rain
on the river at night."

- Yang Wanli

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17612167

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2125032/Chinese-Song-dynasty-dish-sells-26-7m.html

A handle and jars to share

I should be posting some paintings and drawings soon. But how long have I been saying that? I haven't really liked much of my work lately. But when do I anyway? This is just a quick post. I found this link through one of my favourite pottery blogs http://slipware.blogspot.com/2012/02/saturday-and-sunday-on-monday.html .

http://www.rammuseum.org.uk/Collections/ The Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery has some interesting work online to explore. These aren't the best photographs that I have seen from a museum website but there is an interesting variety of work.From Pitcher handle fragments to English delftware. What else could anyone want from a website? Though there search function needs to be improved.D

Saxo Norman Pitcher Handle

Drug (Ointment) Jar

Pharmacy Jar

Some Cups

Here are some cups I found from my local thrift store. They are made by an old pottery from Collingwood Ontario. Here is a wikipedia link about it. And a link to the fan club. I remember a fun lecture about glazes from an instructor at Sheridan about buying their glaze materials at auction. One member of the class thought he was telling the class that he liked this type of pottery and became incensed when he found out that someone thought he liked it. Anyway it looks like I missed this years Blue Mountain Pottery convention again.

A page in history

"Harper's agenda is disastrous for this country and for my generation," 

I'm sorry that I haven't been blogging recently. I have had politics on my mind frequently in the past few months. I try to keep politics and my blog separated from each other. Though some of my recent things are leaning politically. Well my sort of ceramics stuff anyway. But I wanted to write a post about the recent throne speech. A young woman Brigette Marcelle (Depape) decided to stage a protest in the Senate chamber. Brigette Marcelle (Depape) was a senate page and she smuggled a paper stop sign that read "Stop Harper" here is the press release she sent out explaining her action. Here is a link to a facebook page you could like if you support her action.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, June 3, 2011
Senate Page disrupts Throne Speech
Harper's disastrous agenda needs to be stopped with creative action and civil disobedience
Ottawa - During the reading of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's throne speech today, a young page was yanked from the Senate Chamber as she tried to hold up a stop sign placard reading "Stop Harper."
"Harper's agenda is disastrous for this country and for my generation," Brigette Marcelle says. "We have to stop him from wasting billions on fighter jets, military bases, and corporate tax cuts while cutting social programs and destroying the climate. Most people in this country know what we need are green jobs, better medicare, and a healthy environment for future generations."
Brigette Marcelle*, 21 and a recent graduate from University of Ottawa, has been a Page in the Senate for a year, but realized that working within parliament wouldn't stop Harper's agenda.
"Contrary to Harper's rhetoric, Conservative values are not in fact Canadian values. How could they be when 3 out of 4 eligible voters didn't even give their support to the Conservatives? But we will only be able to stop Harper's agenda if people of all ages and from all walks of life engage in creative actions and civil disobediance," she says.
"This country needs a Canadian version of an Arab Spring, a flowering of popular movements that demonstrate that real power to change things lies not with Harper but in the hands of the people, when we act together in our streets, neighbourhoods and workplaces."

E-Day

Stephen Lewis talks to election day volunteers. This video may be from 1984.
Today may be a historic day in Canadian politics and I hope it goes well.
Get out and vote for change and the NDP.