Thailand

Oh what a fabulous trip!  The food, the colors, the beautiful details of everything, the lovely, lovely people- we really had a spectacular time.  Don't get me wrong- there were some absolute disastrous times too, that generally involved one or two twins screaming loudly and alarming everyone around them... And the jet lag turned us all into nasty zombies for a while... But it was wonderful.  I am so, so grateful to my mother for taking us and sharing the magic of her home. 

The pottery was beautiful and very present.  I have always loved the water jars, or "ongs" that most households and buildings have.  The graceful, subtly elegant shape is one I have tried and tried to make, to no avail... Although not everyone uses them for water jars anymore, some do, and at least they are still present in everyday life.  The kids had great fun dipping water out of the one at my aunt and uncle's house- a lot of time was spent playing with this beauty! Jonah uses the traditional dipper here.  

For some scale, here is a photo of Roscoe in front of an old ong, this photo was taken at the Princess's house which was an absolutely beautiful compound with many old pots to see interspersed in the landscape.

We visited many Wats, this particular one- Wat Arun in Bangkok- had broken pottery adorning the entire massive stupa- here is a detail that I thought very beautiful and raw.

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I could go on and on forever about the beauty of this place and show a thousand photos... But I am just going to give a little taste, and go back to the studio and make some pots!  It is really nice to return to the studio after a long break- the whole trip I felt so lucky that I was terribly excited to get back to "work".  

I will end with a photo at a fabulous pottery in Rathburi- a pottery town for many centuries.  I will have to dedicate a whole post to it soon, because I got some great videos and photos...  I kind of want to go work there, but I would never be skilled enough.

Happy New Year!  2015 is going to be a good one.