The ceramics gods

Oh man whatta busy day Saturday. Shipped out a boatload of piggies and cow things, as mentioned.
The default band around here is Beastie Boys, and I think this Sunday needs this rather wonderful and well made video of ‘Intergalactic’.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDS83yrM30Y&search=beastie%20boys

please make special note of:
1) the cute dance outfits, with yellow boots and goggles
2) the dancing robot
3) the big ‘staches
OK, the Ceramics Gods. I went to what my father first described as ‘a crazy school for rich girls’ (or was it school for crazy rich girls?) which is exactly why I wanted to go there, but that isn’t entirely true. There were a few boys there too, including for four years, me. It was not a college for lunatics and flakes, (really!) but there were plenty of both. And I swear I am not a flake, but you may think so after you hear this true story.
The kiln room at Bennington had 2 or 3 medium large electric kilns, a couple of raku kilns and a salt kiln outside, plus 3 HUGE gas kilns inside. The car kiln was about as big as a car, and so was the alpine. Lucille, however, was as big as a small house. Well, a garage anyway. All of the kilns were covered with ‘kiln gods’, little clay figures the person responsible for firing the kiln would make and place on the kiln. Every kiln had hundreds of little gods. We believed, of course, that a nice little figure would please the ceramics gods, and help guarentee a good firing. I have said before that a million things can go wrong with your work in a firing. These little figures actually inspired the little guys I put on my cups--they migrated off the kiln and onto the cup, I swear I am not making this up. That was my inspiration. OK, one day, our instructor Stanley, who was a Zen master and rather confusing to most if not every teenaged student he taught, explained the true origin of the kiln gods at Bennington, and at other kilns where wise people worked. Ancient firing practices basically involved a pile of pots, grasses, twigs, buffalo chips and the like. To appease the gods, little clay figures were made and put next to the fire pits at the start. If the figure blew up, the gods were unhappy and you had a bad firing. Guess what? This is actually based on the fact that you need a slow and steady firing, therefore a blown figure really was a true indicator of success, because if you fire too fast a wet piece will blow. There you go, no flakes here, I swear it, and no pagans either.
Fatboy Slim here shows the perils of messing with the ceramics gods......


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-dBfrbIVTM&NR