We recently went to an open house
at
Heath Ceramics. A high
end ceramics manufacturer in Sausalito and definitely an interesting
visit. As a hobbiest potter, I was a little torn as to what to think
about their setup. The 'handcrafted' portion of what they do is very
minimal compared to what a traditional defined potter does. They use
forms, slip-casting, and jiggers to make pretty much everything. The
human element seems most prevelent in cleaning up the pieces before
firing, and glazing them. I certainly understand why they do things
the way they do, it is a fine line to walk to be able to make enough
pieces to actually be a large business that can do global orders and
still have some of the desirable characteristics of traditional
pottery. Throwing by hand takes forever in comparision an automated
factory lacks character. For example they can form a large bowl in 30
seconds with their not quite totally mechanized process. Cleaning it
up, getting it glazed with a airbrush, and fired doesn't take much
longer it terms of human time that goes in the bowl. The bowls will
be almost exactly the same but just slightly different enough from
each other that they have much more character than something that
really is produced in a modern automated factory somewhere that turns
up in a big box store for 30 bucks.
My qualms with the
"marketing message" vs what I percieve as "the reality of the
situation" aside, they have a great facility. Huge kilns with drop
down walls made of spun glass are super efficent and I'm massively
envious of them, big dry rooms, awesome glazing stations, and a
wonderful clay mixing/recyling room. The tour was great because
during the openhouse they actually have people at the various stations
showing how all the tools work (typically the tours wouldn't have any
demonstrations) and the workers are quite capable of knocking out
piece after piece - though we were on the last tour and I suspect the
workers all wanted to go home and get some use out of their
weekend. ;) Their tiles were really nice and I know from making tiles
myself what a pain it can be to do those right. The designs are all
nice, mostly post modern, that for the most part have been around for
40+ years. The founder was a potter and is exhibited in various
design museums, and I suspect her name and the assicated prestige of
Heath ceramics really helps them in the business and global
marketplace as being a status symbol since while they can knock out
maybe more pieces than a tradition potter they are still very limited
in production compared to a huge factory in China. I think that if
one were able to afford it the pieces are great and much better than
your big box store stuff. They do have seconds and overruns on tile
availble at a discount, and the openhouses each year they sell everying
at 20% off which is even better. If I ever end up with a house that
needs some tile I would definitely check them out.
I finally managed to get around to putting up the honeymoon photos. I had sorted through them a few months ago, but never quite finished the online process. Anyway here they are, carefully winnowed down from thousands to under a hundred for each of our three Belize destinations!
2008-10-25 Chan Chich
Rachel got a new car! A 2009 Honda Fit Base Automatic - a distinct upgrade from the 1988 Toyota Corolla FX. The safety improvement is incredible, let along all the other modern features! The biggest problem was me forgetting my checkbook when we went to pick it up. The economy is definitely having issues though as we got this for a hundred bucks under invoice, which is fairly amazing for a Honda. Of course even the famed honda reliability has limits, my 95 accord had the front rotors warp fairly badly so I just had to get those replaced which was annoyingly expensive as they are press fit rotors which require extra effort. Anyway super happy with the fit, it's fun to drive, exceptionally roomy (which is amazing given it is only an inch longer than the FX it replaces.) and generally awesome!
We participated in the 2008 San Francisco SantaCon this year and had a blast. We started at pier 39 with several hundred other santas and roamed the city from there, providing SF tourists with some good stories and holiday cheer. Many photos were taken, view a selection of them here in the Santacon SF Gallery. Enjoy the video clip of santas dancing at 4pm in a north beach club, watch it now! Don't forget about going to Santacon next year.
Four plane rides and we have managed to get to Chan Chich Eco Lodge. The little plane was quite fun. :) The lodge is very luxurious and jungley, it has been raining quite a lot and all the rivers are super high but it was very nice the day we came in and it isn't currently raining - we slept 13 hours last night so that is a win. I am currently fighting off a bit of a cold but hopefully will make it, this place is so relaxing it's hard to imagine getting sick. We are having a great time so far!
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Wedding Photos are available and have been for a while I've just been lazy about posting. You can see then in the gallery here on the blog. You can also see and order them from shutterfly.com The password to view them is 20080816 and you will need to make an account to be able to order.
Just in time for the debates, have yourself a chuckle at palinvoodoo.com's Sarah Palin Voodoo doll.
Speaking of politics, I really need to stop watching the news because the GOP's general horribleness frightens and angers me to no end.
Whirled is just what it sounds like,
an online "world" har har - oh my side! Written in Flash, and thus
very accessible from all the major browsers and computer platforms.
Part casual gaming, part social networking, part creators pallet -
it is really quit unique and has an array of wildly different things
to do. I personally was highly entertained by a little game called
"Corpse Craft" whose game play is described as: "Build an army of
re-animated corpses to destroy your foes in this puzzle-action
hybrid." Which is quite apt. The art is great, the story and
game play entertaining. You play a game of 'implode' or 'collapse'
or whatever else you want to call it on the bottom of the screen.
As you destroy groups of similarly colored blocks you increase the
number of resource blocks of the same color. You spend those
resources to launch different types of re-animated corpses across the
screen. The different corpses have different abilities that you are
trying to use to destroy your opponents corpse re-animation factory
on the other side of the screen, who of course is sending re-animated
corpses to try and destroy you. It starts off quit easy and gets
much harder for the last few levels. Regardless quite fun and
doesn't take ages to get through.
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