Mary Daniel Blog

Interlude…

Leaving ICS with Debra and her husband T-Bones to spend a rainy, windy weekend in Budapest at the wonderful Gellert luxuriating in the baths, walking the streets of this lovely city so rich in visuals and history, while enjoying the unique food and the warmth of the people.

On Tuesday, up early – Deb and T to make one last trip to the Great Market Hall and I wanted one last dip in the pool (never made it). We made our way by taxi to the airport – about a half hour away – quick, inexpensive with the added benefit of a courteous driver. I do wish I spoke some Hungarian though … such a challenging language and so few of the people speak any English here it makes real communication challenging. That said, I did enjoy the people and look forward to the next time I am fortunate enough to visit.

Istanbul..

We arrived during the heat of the day and at rush hour.  The press of bodies greeting passengers at the airport was four to five deep, holding signs, but no one from our hotel as promised… I went to the service counter (seemed similar to the Mexican system in PV) and negotiated a trip to our hotel with some apprehension… – hot and dusty driving through the green boulevards while jammed into a local taxi van dropping us at our various hotels…. culture shock even though we’d been away from home in Hungary for three months.

We skirted the boulevards in our wonderfully cool van and dropped passengers in narrow streets where it seemed impossible to negotiate two cars at a time – courtesy, pressing horns, taking turns backing up slowly, everone waving hands giving directions until we finally were on our way to our hotel.  We were dropped on a main street where buses and taxis teamed up the hill. Adding to the din of general traffic was an overhead commuter train every few minutes. The Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia were just a few blocks away and the mezzuin seemed to be competing with each other for air space – all in all, an almost distressing cacaphony of sound for me.  We entered the Hotel Emma Saray to be greeted by four charming, talkative men who had assumed management of the hotel a few months ago. While pleasant, they generally had little concept as to how a hotel should be run and as we were there for the week, we had ample opportunity to know they were out of their depth….. but that is a blog for another time.  However, the week-long visit was rich and we loved the city and our time there – the food, the people, the Turkish monuments and baths will ensure I will return again.  Enjoy some of the photos of our time in Budapest and Istanbul…

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The last few days have been ones of musings and reflections about our explorations during the last few months while we do the inevitable cleaning, sorting and packing up of our studios and rooms.

We unloaded the large gas kiln on the weekend and were greeted with a few surprises…. lots was packed in, and gas kilns have a life of their own once they are bricked up.  Jakab’s brick support for my tall form worked in part but a real sculptural element was added when one of Debra’s backdrop walls toppled on  it during firing and caused what Jakab laughingly calls the domino effect – I think he and Klari have seen pretty much everything in terms of clays and firing in their many years here with visiting artists and students.

Debra and I unloaded and examined our work in detail and discussed the processes until there was no longer much to say… this seems to be our way.  We never run out of things to talk about when it comes to clay.

It is a busy week here – Imre Shrammel and Roswitha Geyer have returned to complete the work  begun last March and are doing a salt firing – it is fascinating to watch them work together with such energy, concentration and curiosity.  The students have had their critiques and most have left and a new crew of students and teachers from Kansas have arrived.  In addition to this the institute has been notified that some work on one of the most historic parts of the building will begin in 9 days and massive amounts of work have to be moved to some place safe in this phenomenally busy place so this process can begin.

Debra and I had our “trunk show” which was largely driven by her idea that we needed to display our progress and processses.  It was curated by her as she fussed, organized and re-arrangned the pieces over a few days – all to a good result I believe.  It shed new light on our work and when we had an “opening” for ICS staff, artists and students, we were so pleased at the amount of attention and critical comment they gave our work.  The thoughtfullness and  carefullness made both of us feel so positive about the progress we have made and the directions we can work in the next while.

So, while I have sadness at leaving, I am so grateful for the space that this environment has provided me to explore what I want to do, where I want to go, and  the attention that has been given to me by the staff in supporting me in this endeavor.  The physical environment of ICS promotes this nurturing, but it is the people who work here who support us as artists to enable our work to evolve to something greater than it was before and all I can do is offer thanks.  So, thank you Janos, Jona, Klari, Jakab, Ildiko, Steve, Emese, Bepo and Emma.

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A memorable day.  Debra and I took on the task of loading the medium-sized gas kiln, having been encouraged to use it by Klari  who felt we had enough work to fill it and it is more cost effective.  It is literally putting all of  your eggs in one basket though as it does hold the majority of our work completed the last two months.  We woke up to a few hours of finishing our glaze work – of course it took more time than we thought it would and I wasn’t happy with some of my technique but there was no time to re-do so I’ll just have to live with the results or recycle.

Our work is remarkably compatible to load – I had many flatter pieces – about 26 tiles and other lower level bowls, and Debra had her army of porcelain babies and cast dogs to fill in the areas around the tiles.  Her larger animals and babies fit well with my taller pieces – We had lots of help from Jakab and Klari, particularly with the loading of my taller, more delicate, even flimsy pieces where Jakob nestled one of them between gwo bricks.  Klari and Jakab regaled us with the tale of Maria Geszler loading three cello forms in the top of this same kiln and they talked about the domino effect when one leaned into the other for a fixed grouping of three and implied I might be lucky and obtain the same results!  I guess we’ll know in two days.

While loading, we went to listen to Janos Probstner give critiques to two of the Turkish students who will be leaving on the weekend for Ankara.  Deb and I have become fond of Izzet and Gomsa and wanted to see the display of their efforts. Both opened with a statement of what their “concept” was (very big here) and Janos gave thoughtful, considered analysis of their work, and it was insightful to listen to him and his comments.  Afterwords, everyone in the studio was invited to a treat of genuine homemade goulash outside, just before a torrential downpour with thunder and lightening that drove eveyone for cover.

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A weekend of of industry – continuing to form molds, dry them in the drying cupboard (a fabulous invention I had not heard of before here) and seeing the magic of our forms after casting them – seemingly perfect (or more perfect than before)! My photographs are somewhat limited and don’t give the whole picture as I had to take my camera in for repairs – perhaps using it too much!

The workshop was a wonderful learning experience for me – it is one of those areas where I realize more “what” I need to know and also what a fine skill (and art) mold-making is and that it takes years to master that alone. Casting is yet another area and I have always paired them and it really isn’t so.

I cast a set of bowls and a few tiles and these will likely be the last forms I make on this journey here. Debra and I loaded a bisque kiln yesterday and will do a medium size gas reduction on Thursday. Today, we explore the world of decal making – my head is jammed so fully with all I have learned – not sure what else I can take in, but am willing to try.

This week has been a busy productive blur from the first morning when five of us arrived to be introduced to mold making by  master mold maker, Ed Bentley (www.Bentleystoll.com).  Immediately, hands on demonstrations made the process accessible,  non-intimidating while engaging us all. 

When we began the class, all five of us wondered why there were so few people in the course – now we know.  The plaster room at ICS is large with a grand marble slab of a table in the middle.  By the time all of us have projects going – and they are many and varied – we run out of space.  We are glad there are only five of us!  Ed is kept busy attending to each of our designs and helping us as required – which seems to be much of the time.

Hopefully, the photos will give you some sense of the processes we’ve been involved with so far this week.

I have many pictures of this place I have become fond of – it is hard to select those I feel best represent the “feel” of the place.  Even the work areas, or perhaps especially the work areas, hold special interest for me.  Walking from kilns to plaster room to studio to work or visit others, or to ask questions of Klari or Jakob, have endeared the place to me – it is a very special environment to be here and work in.

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We were pleased with our first gas firing – so excited at the unloading of it that both Deb and I totally forgot to take any photographs – however, there are enough for you to get the general idea.

Now, we have enough information about the firings and the glazes  to work with more confidence and we need to as we are running out of time.  Next week we take a mold workshop from a master mold-maker (molds are big here as many people training in ceramics go in to industry so there is a real emphasis on this technique).  But, in three weeks, we will finish our time at ICS and this is not without some feeling of sadness already – this has been a wonderful place to reinvent what I have been doing…

Whew – we are the busy gals – a bisque, salt firing and now a gas firing in the space of a week -

 Hard work all round on Friday with the salt glaze. Four of the young students stayed up through the night to stoke the fire. In spite of their best efforts, they couldn’t reach the required temperature for Jakob to work to increase the heat quickly as this kiln was meant to do. It was interesting watching Jakob when he arrived at 6:00 a.m. because he knew right away from the colour of the inside of the kiln as well as the smoke belching out that the kiln had many hours to go for this firing…

 We spent the Friday stoking the kiln with wood and coaxing the pyrometer to 1250 degrees centigrade before shutting it down with just a little reduction (reducing the oxygen). It cooled all day Saturday and by noon,  Sunday, Margaret had opened the damper and fuel boxes to let some air in and around 5:00 p.m., we opened the door to mixed responses about the results…. of course, the students milled around as there is always excitement about unloading the kiln, even on a Sunday afternoon.  Margaret was initially very disappointed as she fires salt (with gas) at U of Wyoming and knows the result she wanted but it is very different with the ash deposits of a wood fired kiln – part of the beauty of it. Deb was rightly thrilled with the results of the sigliatta finish on her babies – perfect temperature for her and I was very pleased with a few of my pieces – Herend porcelain which I had used exclusively, should be fired to about 1300 degrees so the work did not have quite the brilliance I had hoped for, but nonetheless, happy with some of the pieces.

Not much rest for the wicked though, as Debra and I needed to get glazing right away to load a small gas kiln – about 4 cubic feet which doesn’t sound like much, but it kept us busy for about 6 hours glazing and loading – this kiln will be fired to around 1320 degrees celsius and will have lots of reduction and as Debra and I have only porcelain in it, we are looking forward to the results – no stoking the fire with lots of wood here! Automated timed firing… might be something for me to look into for my studio at home.

We worked most of the day loading the kiln with experts Klari and Jakob.  Each piece had to have clay “pads” placed under it so it would not fuse to the kiln shelves.  There was a sense of release (not relief) as our pieces were loaded into the kiln and handed the firing of the work over to those who know the kiln best.  Margaret has much riding on the successful firing of the kiln as she needs this work for an exhibit at the ICS Gallery in June and in Nanaimo in July. However, we know as all ceramacists, that once the kiln is loaded, it is in the hands of not only the skilful kiln firers, but it also depends upon the elements, the loading of the kiln and the quality of the wood being used.  We were pleased to see Klari place her favourite (we thought, as it was beautiful) kiln angel on top of the kiln to watch over the firing and assure success.