IDEAS!

THINK HEALTHY!

TO ALL MY READERS

AS A RESULT OF A FALL AND SOME CONCUSSION IN OCTOBER 2011, I HAVE BEEN EXPERIENCING SERIOUS, NON-STOP HEADACHES FOR 41 WEEKS. MY MEDICAL TEAM THINKS THAT CONTINUAL COMPUTER USE MIGHT BE AGGRAVATING THE PROBLEM. I HAVE BEEN INSTRUCTED TO CUT OUT COMPUTER USE FOR THE NEXT MONTH. I HOPE TO RESUME MY BLOG POSTINGS AT THE BEGINNING OF AUGUST. I HAVE SEVERAL TOPICS THAT I WISH TO TALK ABOUT. AT LEAST I CAN HAVE TIME TO TAKE PHOTOS AND DO WHATEVER RESEARCH MIGHT BE NECESSARY!


MANY APOLOGIES FOR THIS 
UNFORESEEN DELAY.

BEST WISHES FOR THE SUMMER, ROBIN

IT RAINED LAST NIGHT!

LITTLE RAIN LAST NIGHT!


READ ON AND RESPOND, 
I NEED YOUR HELP.

CN TOWER - TORONTO

The image below shows the panel, from left - Scott Barnim, Roger Kerslake, Robin Hopper and Thomas Aitken, and curator Rachel Gotlieb at the George R. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art in Toronto. The occasional was to recognize the involvement of British and British-trained ceramic artists in Canadian Ceramic Education. It was in conjunction with a major ceramic exhibition titled "RULE BRITANNIA", honouring Queen Elizabeth II.

Between my Hotel and the Gardiner Museum  are two other museums, the Bata Shoe Museum and the Royal Ontario Museum or ROM as it is affectionately known. It is one of the world's major museums and among its fabulous art collections also has what is probably the World's Greatest Geological and Mineral Collection. If your are at all interested in Ceramic Glaze and Colour Development, this collection will give you more ideas than a century of playing with ceramic calculation. I will explain in later postings. The image below is of a huge Agateized Geode with Silica and Iron. Linear pattern is developed by different cooling rates.

The BATA SHOE MUSEUM is a real treat, holding intriguing footware from around the world and covering two thousand years of history. The shoes in the following image are from the "Flapper" period in 1920's Paris, France. The ideas of form, colour, decoration and texture are amazing. A future posting will show more.

The area of Southern Ontario known as Prince Edward County, or "The County" for short, is one of the newer Canadian Winegrowing and production areas. This area is particularly good for grape varieties that prefer a more alkaline soil. Soil conditions are similar to the Alsace area of France, but summers are considerably warmer.  Many Prizewinning varieties of wine are found here

I wasn't supposed to be working because of health reasons, but I had designed a couple of small gardens for my younger daughter, Sarah, a couple of years earlier that were beginning to fill out nicely. She wanted to join them and was prepared to spend the money and do the grunt work. I jotted down some IDEAS, did some drawings and we went off to all the nurseries in Belleville for plants, organic fertilizer and a truckload of topsoil. Down the length of the grass covering the septic, there had been the remains of mixed glacial till rocks from an old glacier that probably melted over twenty thousand years ago. The dumped rocks had been bull-dozed alongside the grass in a long straight line. I quickly designed a Wave Border some 80' in length. Sarah moved the topsoil, I placed the plants. In three to five years it should fill out and look pretty nice. My postings will give more about gardens and plants on a regular basis

Going back to Toronto to catch a flight back to the West Coast and HOME, my daughters Karen and Sarah treated meto a combination Father's Day and Belated Birthday. They took me to see the amazing stage performance of WARHORSE, about horses used in the battles of WW 1 in Northern France. I know the area well, having worked there as a travel guide when I was in my 20's for a summer. The "stage horses" were life-sized puppets operated by three people each. They captured every movement of real horses from flicking ears to stomping feet and everything between. As a former prop-maker in London's West End, I was utterly intrigued. The most complex props that I made in that particular career was a 20' fully articulated crocodile for Peter Pan and a full scale vintage car for Shaw's Man and Superman or Arms and the Man. I made Props as an adjunct income for the pottery studio. We finished the day with dinner at a great Thai restaurant, Khao San Road.

Everything I've talked about in this and almost all of my postings concerns the development of IDEAS and problem-solving in many diverse directions. I plan to continue along this direction. If you have thoughts about these directions, please let me know.  See you in a few days,  Robin

I'M BACK, BUT BUSY IN THE GARDEN!

COOL BUT LITTLE RAIN!

CN TOWER - TORONTO

AFTER A WEEK IN TORONTO AND SOUTH-EASTERN ONTARIO, WHERE IT WAS HOT AND HUMID, I RETURNED HOME TO THE WEST COAST WHERE IT WAS COOL BUT DRY AS A BONE! SO NOW IT IS HOSE-DRAGGING TIME TO HAND WATER A LARGE EXPANSE THAT IS CONTINUALLY DRIED OUT BY THE 700 YEAR OLD DOUGLAS FIR TREES, EACH ONE OF WHICH SUCKS OUT 40 GALLONS OF WATER PER DAY FROM THE SURROUNDING SOIL.

WHAT HAVE THE FOLLOWING IMAGES GOT IN COMMON? KEEP READING AND FIND OUT IN THE NEXT FEW POSTINGS.

I WILL BE BACK WHEN THE WATERING IS DONE IN A COUPLE OF DAYS -  SEE YOU THEN.   RH

HORTICULTURAL SPECIAL

SATURDAY, 9TH JUNE 2012

LATE SPRING GARDEN

A SELECTION - MID-MAY TO EARLY JUNE!

THE HORN OF PLENTY 


I DIDN'T GET ENOUGH TIME TO FINISH THIS POSTING BEFORE I HAD TO BE SOMEWHERE ELSE FOR A WEEK. SO I HAD TO LEAVE IT UNFINISHED. RATHER THAN NOT LEAVE YOU SOMETHING TO LOOK AT, HERE ARE A FEW   GARDEN IMAGES FROM THE LAST THREE WEEKS.  I WILL CONTINUE THE BLOG AS SOON AS I AM ABLE.

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AZALEA DAVIESII

AZALEA KLONDYKE

THE ROTUNDA IN THE TONGUE-IN-CHEEK GRAECO-ROMAN GARDEN

JAPANESE MAPLE - ACER palmatum FILIGREE 

RHODODENDRON HAEMATODES

JAPANESE MAPLE - GARNET

AZALEA

JAPANESE MAPLE KIYOHIME MURASAKI

IRIS PSEUDACORUS

SILVER ISLAND

JAPANESE MAPLE - FILIGREE 

AZALEA 'TANGERINE"

ENKIANTHUS CAMPANULATUS

AZALEA "HELENE SCHIFFNER"

CLEMATIS PATENS "RAMONA

RHODODENDRON PURPURESCENS

AZALEA "CITRINE"

JAPANESE MAPLE - ACER PALMATUM DISSECTUM PURPUREUM

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ENJOY THE PATTERNS, TEXTURES AND COLORS OF LEAVES AND PLANTS. A GREAT SOURCE OF IDEAS FOR FORM AND SURFACE

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THE PHILOSOPHER'S TEE-SHIRT!

Monday, 4th June 2012

THE THE SOCRATIC METHOD OF TEACHING

When I came from England to CANADA in 1968 to teach for the TORONTO BOARD of EDUCATION, I was obliged to take two summers of Pedagogical Studies or Teacher Training. I was a specialist art teacher  in Ceramics but I had to learn how to teach. The teaching method was Socratic, after the Greek Teacher and Philosopher named SOCRATES. His method was primarily  teaching by asking questions.  As far as I'm concerned, this is the most natural teaching approach. You need to have the questions lined up in order to get the most pertinent answers.

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"ATMOSPHERICALLY CHALLENGED" is a syndrome for those ceramic artists and potters who think they either have to be electric fired or gas fired and yearn for years to become whatever they are not.

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In 1981,  I worked on a great video for the Canadian Broadcasting Company, one of a of a series titled "The Hand and Eye Series". The program about Ceramics had the title "GLORIOUS MUD". It had a number of internationally recognized artists included, such as Michael Cardew, Michael Casson, Shimaoka Tatsuso, Viola Frey,  Enid Legros, Walter Dexter, The Martin Brothers, several collectors including Garth Clark. I was the On Camera Host and also did some demonstrating and further discussion. Michael Cardew, a good friend and great ceramic philosopher, was 80 years old at the time. He had the most wonderful face, lined like a very busy railroad track series. At one point, Michael is working on a kick wheel, throwing a large bowl that appeared to be clearly out of control. He looks straight into the camera lens, screws up his multi-lineal face into the most amazing mask and states "IT WOBBLES ABOUT A BIT, BUT IT WILL BE ALRIGHT!" The next shot is of the huge bowl, glazed, fired and finished in his signature style. It sure was "ALRIGHT." I decided to steal Michael's quote to validate looseness but strength and freedom in the act of throwing. Unfortunately, Michael died three months after the filming took place. The film is dedicated to Michael. Although the film is 30 years old it ranks as one of the best in films about clay.  Here's to you Michael!

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NEWSFLASH

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