Friday 7 November 2008

Rainy Day....wet pots=no pots

Got some things trimmed this morning even though they were not ready.  After lunch or so I went to the brush maker.  There was a small shop with the same brush maker from the previous blogs.  There were brushes of all sorts shapes and sizes in porcelain jars everywhere on shelves lining the walls.  Every one that I picked up had a different pourpose.  I would ppick it up and she would point at a specific leaf, and another she would point at a thin line.  Some I would pick up and she would make a swoosh! noise with her mouth and waive her arm in the air like she was painting loosely.  Some for under glazing, glazing, slips...you name it they made it.  They had some that looked like whole horse tails hanging from a stick.  I bought a large selection of the handmade brushes because they are so cheap here and hard to find in the US.  I figure if I do not use them they will make great gifts for some of my friends that are artists.  
After that it was on the bus back to the school.  The bus costs 1 yuan for the ride almost anywhere in town.  One yuan is equivalent to around 13 cent.  So it is a pretty good deal.  I suppose we made the bad decision of getting on the bus ar just the wrong time because the first stop was school letting out.  The bus was so packed with 3rd graders that you could not even move an inch!  The kids were scooting in and out of people causing so much fast crowded motion it was nuts! and nobody was stopping them.  I tried to capture this on camera, but I could not keep the camera still because every time I would get a shot set up some little kid would bump into me.  It was out of control.  Well after the fight to get out of the stampede bus it was off to supper until the slide lecture at the pottery workshop.  The lecture was by a Canadian jeweler named paul leathers.  I know that does not sound up my alley at all, but it really was a great lecture. There is a load of thought about shape and philosophy that goes into his work that can be applied to any type of three dimensional art.    


3 comments:

June said...

School kids ride these buses too - welcome to my world. Mom:)

c said...

B(a)C Before Air Conditioning the rooms had ceiling fans hanging from the hook....That's why the electrical box is there beside it. One of many things I learned in Jingdezhen. Try and stump us again Brad!
jeff

Brad Lail said...

I was told it was once used to hang the mosquito netting. Oh well...ya win some, ya loose some.