Category Archives: Uncategorized

The patience of the potter…

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It is a wild wet day here- the first storm of the autumn. Emily is home from university for some TLC (tonsillitis no doubt brought about by loss of sleep and excessive parties) and will is stretched out on a floor cushion in his onesy nursing a cold.

Michaela is potting. She has been making some large bowls based around pebble designs.

No matter how much you might like to rush the process of making pots, it is simply not possible. One of the most important skills employed seems to be a process of learning patience.

First you take a lump of raw clay. You then work the clay to ensure it is smooth and free of air bubbles (which would result in the pot exploding in the Kiln) then you use your hands and imagination to shape a pot. It takes Michaela several hours to get to this point;

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Next you have to wait for the pot to air dry- getting as much moisture out as possible. If you do this too fast, the pot with crack, if you do not do it enough it will be destroyed in the kiln. This can take around 4-5 days, depending on the thickness of the clay and the weather conditions.

Next you carefully stack your pots in the kiln, using ‘kiln furniture’ (carefully covered in bat wash so nothing sticks.) The kiln then as to warm up over several stages, taking around 11 hours to get up to around 1000 degrees centigrade.

Michaela and the kiln

It will then take another 10 hours to cool down sufficiently so that you can open the kiln. Some pots will have survived the firing, some may not. Even then, you do not have a completed pot- you have something that has been biscuit fired- it is hard and porous. Next you need to glaze the pot.

This involves brushing one or more glazes in liquid form on to the pot, carefully layering and sponging. This too can take an hour on some of the big pots. Many potters hate this stage as it is the least creative.

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Then the pot goes back in the kiln. Carefully stacked on bat-washed kiln furniture. Glaze sets like glass so if two pots touch they are like Siamese twins, only separated by risky surgery. Another 11 hours getting up to temperature, and the same to cool, and you open the kiln with excitement and trepidation.

The colours of the glazes are fickle- they often depend on subtle differences in temperature in different parts of the kiln. Sometimes Michaela has fired pots three times to get the right colour.

All of this is one of the reasons why I am no potter…

But I love watching the things work, helping out when I can, and I am so proud of Michaela’s pots.

I should add that for those of you who want to try your hand at pottery- Michaela and Pauline run courses– which are very busy-  I think the next few 4 session introductory courses are almost full. However, we will also be hopefully running to residential weekends over the winter- watch this space!

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Gove et al- did they arrive here via a Victorian time warp?

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(Sorry- more politics. I did not quite get it all out my system yesterday.)

I have been thinking about what moral imperatives drive the current Tory led government coalition. There have to be some, or how else can they stand firm against the voices of protest? How else can they ignore expert advice, or most recently, even the United Nations?

Some might suggest that their policies coincide with the interests of those who already have power wealth and property, and want to keep it- the old Marx class war stuff. Whilst this might well drive all sorts of undercurrents of power people do not often make political decisions according to naked self interest. Rather they have complex systems of values, obligations and loyalties that drive the story they place themselves in.

Then again there is the suggestion that some Bullingdon Club/Old Etonian discussion about how young Tories connect with the great unwashed resulted in one too many drunken drive home with a certain kind of taxi driver- you know the kind; full of talk about how the country is going to dogs because there are too many scroungers and immigrants and not enough hanging and flogging. However, I think we need to remember that our government, no matter how much we may think it at times, is made of up of highly intelligent individuals full of drive and ambition.

No, it has to be something else- some other well of ideology they they are drawing inspiration from…

I think I have it.

Let me throw you back a hundred and fifty years or so to a time when a relatively young Queen Victoria was on the throne. Britain was ‘Great’, in the sense that we had no real challengers to the power of our Empire. We pretty much took what ever we wanted from all over the world. Our industry was booming, our trade routes enforced by gunboat diplomacy. The rich man was building ever bigger castles whilst the poor man stayed at his gate. Or rather, worked in his factory, or up his chimney. That is the Britain that we all want to live in, right? That is a Britain that we all aspire to return to?

Or let me put it this way;

Education

Rigour, discipline, concentration of narrow canon- the classics, the three Rs. So called ‘experts’ are to be treated with derision. The Education of our workforce is the thing- we educate for productivity, and leave a door half way open for those who might become Mill Managers, NCOs or Empire Administrators.

Welfare

People have to work or starve. There is room for benevolent philanthropy, but only for the deserving poor. The rest need to be treated with a tough dose of reality.

Health

The quality of medicine you are entitled to depends on how much individuals can afford to spend on it. There are other health services, but these are patchy, poorly equipped and perhaps ill judged.

Human rights

The only overarching right is Freedom- Freedom to prosper through hard work, application and free trade. This freedom does not extend to foreigners, or anyone who threatens the status quo, or the entitlement of those in power to live with the benefits that power brings.l

Criminal justice

Punish those who commit crime with as much severity as possible, so that they will learn the error of their ways. Even better, remove people from society permanently. Ship them off somewhere else with a one way ticket.

Industrial relations

The workers are there to work. If an employer kills or maims his workforce this is reprehensible as this injures productivity. Beyond this, let the market decide.

I could go on, but I am sure you get my point.

Next time you see Cameron on TV, think of the great Tory Hero, Benjamin Disraeli.  Minus the novels. And the personality. And the Jewishness.

When you hear Gove sound off against the feckless poor who are visiting our new Vicorian soup Kitchens/food banks, or dismissing research based opposition to his education policies as ‘badly misguided lobby’, think about the poor houses and Samuel Smiles’s ‘Self Help’.

It all starts to make a lot more sense.

Brazilians and the Bedroom tax…

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(Political rant warning. But hey, its MY blog, and I am angry…)

I was in a meeting in Argyll fairly recently in which a presentation was made about the likely impact of the bedroom tax (whereby council tenants are lose benefit for under-occupying homes deemed too large for their needs) on the people of Argyll. Two things stick in my mind- firstly the description of the number of people likely to be affected by the bedroom tax, next the number of available one bedroom properties for these folk to move into. The first number exceeded the second one by about 4 to 1.

The next thing that I remember was a Councillor raising a point of order with the chair because of the use of the term ‘bedroom tax’. He rightly pointed out that it is actually called the ‘under occupancy penalty’. You can guess that he was a supporter, but also that he was wasting his breath as the ‘bedroom tax’ label is here to stay.

This and the mess of other largely punitive changes brought in by the Welfare Reform Act 2012 should be a cause of shame on our government. Why are we allowing them to punish parts of society directly impacted by the greed of those who are currently profiting from austerity?

Where are the voices of opposition?

There have been a few raised by the Church, but too few.

Step forward the United Nation’s rapporteur on housing Raquel Rolnik, over here on a visit to examine the impact of our social housing. This is what she said;

In her preliminary report, Rolnik broadened her attack on the bedroom tax first revealed by the Guardian, to other concerns, including the effect of benefit caps and fears that decentralisation of planning laws in Northern Ireland might lead to “increased sectarianism and discrimination”. She warned that housing benefit caps would make moving to the private rented sector increasingly difficult for those on low incomes, and complained that homes were now allowed to stand empty in London and elsewhere because they had been sold to international buyers as financial assets.

The system for helping the poor in Britain had been weakened by “a series of measures over the years, notably by having privileged home-ownership over other forms of tenure”, said Rolnik.

She cited the government’s “help to buy” scheme and failure to replace homes removed from social housing by two decades of tenants’ right to buy their council homes. “It is possible to stimulate the economy and construction industry if you provide more social housing and affordable housing,” Rolnik said, adding that such a recommendation would be made in her final report.

She also warned over increasing stigma being shown toward Gypsies, Travellers and Roma struggling to find accommodation. She had concerns too about provision for refugees and asylum seekers. Rolnik did say Britain had set an example in the way it had renovated old social housing estates and praised its mixed communities and lack of segregation.

From The Guardian

The government is furious- calling (with no small irony) the report ‘scandalous’.  They have since tried hard to attack Rolnik personally, suggesting she comes from a country where millions live in poverty, and somehow implying that her report is rogue and goes further than it ought to have done.

The truth is that when a government has to deal with the United Nations questioning the negative impact of its own policies towards the most needy members of its societies surely it ought to feel shame.

And surely we, the citizens of the country should hold to account that government?

In this age of fractured splintered self interest, perhaps it takes a Brazilian to look into our country and see things the way they are.

What a weekend…

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Sitting here rather tired…

On Saturday a day Michaela and I have been rather dreading arrived- Emily, our lovely daughter, was starting University in Stirling. We filled the car with stuff and headed out there to settle her in her new environment. She has a lovely room overlooking greenery and lakes, and has already started making new friends, but at the same time it was rather emotionally exhausting. Emily leaves a very big hole now she is not in the house- she is simply so vibrant and alive and altogether wonderful. I feel a nostalgic photograph coming on…

Michaela and Emily- 2003

Still, her life moves on, as does ours. They day after was our wedding anniversary- 23 years married. We celebrated it with- cricket!

We drove down to Manchester from Stirling (along with William) and stayed in the hotel that is part of the stands at Old Trafford, then attended the second ODI between England and Australia. For the record, England lost, but we had a great day in a great atmosphere. Apparently we were the centre of some crowd shots on the TV- both the Sky footage and the highlights on Channel 5. So photogenic of course; how could they not?

We then haired back up to Scotland and missed the 10.30PM ferry by about 2 minutes- that sickening feeling as you watch it pull away from the pier as you are trapped behind a car doing 25 MPH. This meant waiting at the terminal for the last ferry at midnight.

Still, I am not in a hurry to do much this morning. I have some sculptures to complete and some writing to do.

Whilst doing this I will attempt to count my blessings, but they are rather numerous and arithmetic has never been my strongest skill…

By the way, whilst talking about cricket, the season stats for Greenock are on line. Amazingly I am 4th in the batting averages. Which is indicative of a rather poor season! Still, there is always next year, when I think it likely that Williams averages will be much better than mine. It is the order of things, we decline, and our kids increase.

We would have it no other way…

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Giving hospitality…

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We have had a house full of (paying) guest over the past week- here for the Cowal Highland Gathering.

Highland Dancers from Newcastle.

A family of highly creative folk from France and London, including a jazz musician, an opera singer and a life model.

Michaela and I cooked 31 cooked breakfasts (once at 6am!) cleaned constantly, changed bedding every third day, and in the middle had time to do some pottery, some wood carving and bits of socialising. It has been a busy hectic week, but we have both enjoyed it enormously. It helped that our guests were so lovely of course, but just the process of welcoming others into our space with other people is such a simple pleasurable act.

Michaela in particular is really good at those little touches that make people feel that special effort has been made- place mats with hand lettered quotes, suggestions of places to go and things to do, etc etc. Mostly (particularly in the morning) I kept out of the way and worked in the kitchen. On one occasion whilst delivering some toast I was accused of sending it sliding down the table western bar style- with no small amount of elan I thought!

Weekends like this when the house is so full gives hope for the future of our mixed economy way of making a living. It will always be marginal, and Cowal Games comes but once a year, but it kind of fits with who we are.

This week an old friend from Bolton is using the Annex- I have not seen her for 10 years and it will be lovely to catch up with her news.

Our big old house is a demanding old aunt, but at last it feels like she has softened into genial old age…

Come and see for yourselves!

The myth of success, and better ways to use ten thousand hours…

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There was an interesting discussion on the radio this morning about the so called ‘Ten thousand hours principle’. We heard a lot about this around the Olympics- leading to a general feeling that success in any given pursuit is related to one main thing- sufficient application. Time spent over and over again practicing, rehearsing, developing skill, muscle memory and endurance.

It is all based on this book;

Outliers

This from the Wikipedia entry;

In Outliers, Gladwell examines the factors that contribute to high levels of success. To support his thesis, he examines the causes of why the majority of Canadian ice hockey players are born in the first few months of the calendar year, how Microsoft co-founder Bill Gatesachieved his extreme wealth, how The Beatles became one of the most successful musical acts in human history, how Joseph Flom built Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom into one of the most successful law firms in the world, how cultural differences play a large part in perceived intelligence and rational decision making, and how two people with exceptional intelligence, Christopher Langan and J. Robert Oppenheimer, end up with such vastly different fortunes. Throughout the publication, Gladwell repeatedly mentions the “10,000-Hour Rule“, claiming that the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours.

Makes sense right?

Success is thus democratised. With the right amount of hard work we can all succeed; we can climb the highest mountain, pass the exams, win the recording contract, make our first billion. The American dream has been quantified.

I do not want to squash your ambition; if you are aiming high, may success light your days, fickle though it will surely be- there is after all always another mountain beyond. My issue however is that the whole ten thousand idea is hogwash.

Some of this is about the relationship between application and ability. The nature of the kind of success we value is that it is a rare commodity, achieved by people with extraordinary ability. These people are out on the far edge of the bell curve- gifted with ability to run, climb, reason, sing, dance etc. Sure, in order to scale their own possibilities they need to work hard, make sacrifices etc, but do not pretend that their success was actually available to all, it simply was not.

Next, most of the successes that are quantified in this book are the ones that can be measured in terms of two things- celebrity and money. There is a nod to academic achievement too, but pretty much this is a marginal matter. It is success within a very specific context- democratic market capitalism. In order for our continued buy-in to our zeitgeist, we have to believe that the glittering gifts of our culture are available to us all, without exception.

Happiness and fulfillment- what do we know about them? Do people who succeed have a higher measure of these things, or a lower one that drives them on? Are they satisfied with their success? And where does that leave the rest of us scrabbling in their wake?

I think the answer to this is that success is not closely associated with happiness. This comes from a gentler kind of human being-ness, better understand as living in harmony and connection with each other. It is more about commonality than ascendancy- and a far better use for our ten thousand hours.

It might also be that even though most of us are ‘ordinary’ in the reach of our achievements, the value of what we are has nothing to do with celebrity or bank balance. There is such beauty in small things, in moments of grace, in every day loving.

Greenbelt 2013…

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Will and I are just back from GB 13- the 40th year anniversary of the first festival, back in 1973. We had a lovely time. I spent time with some old friends and as ever immersed myself in new music and ideas.

I did not take a camera this year- we were on the train as far as Preston and so took a minimalist approach (the photos here are all pinched from the GB website.) However, I thought I would pick a couple of highlights from each day;

On Thursday Will and I were picked up at Preston station by Andy and Hannah, and set off down the M6 into bank holiday traffic. The inevitable happened- and accident closed the motorway in both ways and so we all got out of our cars and had a chat to one another. In fact, Will and I went over onto the empty opposite carriageway and had a game of cricket. That evening we really enjoyed Eliza Cathy and Jim Moray.

Saturday, rather amazingly belonged to Graham Kendrick. Firstly he did a worship set- all the old favourites, including the dreaded ‘Shine Jesus Shine’. Kendrick was charming, in a geeky slightly fey kind of way. We even had a ‘give God a round of applause’ moment. Hands were waved and (please do not judge me) I cried.

I think I cried for what I was, what I loved, what has gone, but was (despite all the foolish edges) still beautiful. Music does that to you.

Later Kendrick did an acoustic set of his folk songs- the things I listened to back in the early 80s when you were listening to the Clash and the Sex Pistols.

The other highlight for me was Dave Andrews– telling stories of a life of community activism- trying to live a life motivated towards the poor.

Sunday highlights would be; Jim Wallis, another man living a life of protest against those in power. I also enjoyed John Bell’s talk about the operation of power. Musically, the Moulettes were simply stunning- unusual, quirky, gorgeous music, including the use of a Bassoon.

I really enjoyed the wall of noise that was Black Rebel Motorcycle Club too…

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Monday morning saw Will and I listening to Pete Rollins, weaving stories, jokes, theology and philosophy together. He is very entertaining, and some of his points hit home. There is a knowingness about Rollins that has an elitist edge however which I do not warm to. He seems to be at his most creative out beyond the edge, looking at us all with a sardonic grin. It is an approach that excludes and intimidates me a little.

Finally, I might as well mention the Greenbelt institution that is Martin Joseph. Songs that are mixed out of fragile emotion. Each one teeters and might fall on each note, but in spite (or because) of this it all soars heavenward.

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Off to Greenbelt…

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Mud greenbelt 2012

(Hope we do not get a repeat of last years conditions!)

Will and I are going down to Greenbelt Festival on our own this year- Michaela and Emily are simply too busy with other things. In fact, it was a late call to decide to go down, partly because Will was desperate to go, and also because I get the chance to meet up with some old friends. Oh- and my mate Andy had some spare tickets!

This year we are going as punters- no responsibilities, no installations to set up/services to lead. I have strangely mixed feelings about this however. Greenbelt has provided for me a sense of loose ‘belonging’ to a wider ‘church’, and I am not sure that it will be quite the same experience without actually contributing something to the festival. It will certainly be a lot less stressful however!

I watched a DVD last night called Greenbelt/40, the journey so far. It was full of the music of my youth- trips to the festival in the early 80s. It was a slightly surreal experience- like watching your life pass away into the distance. It did leave me wanting to look forward, not backwards however….

May there be sunshine, good conversation, great music and new ideas…