mudbath

This is a "clinker" from the coal plant. Large quantities of water are used to keep the flammable dust down, and to prevent the coal from solidifying into these chunks. I was amazed at the range of texture and color in these.  Originally I had planned on using fly ash, the byproduct of coal burning, as a glaze material, but these clinkers have great sculptural potential as well. 

Our campus is powered by coal from the Usibelli mine in Healy. Multiple coal cars are dropped off at the boiler facility via a special rail spur that runs through the plant. There, they wait on the tracks in the yard until more coal is needed at which point they are rolled into the building and a hatch on the undercarriage opens, dumping coal through a grate and into the grinders below. The coal powers a series of boilers which send steam first to the electricity-generating turbine and then on through large pipes that feed the steam heat to buildings around campus. You can see where these "utilidors" run underground, as the snow melts along their path. 

People eating rocks.

African painted dog, Lesley McKenzie.

Horsehair raku. Graydon Pottery.

American Museum of Ceramic Art.

Colombian chess set, 1940.

Russel Wright, 1937.

Wedgewood set, basalt ware. 18th c, England.

Zodiac Animals. 8th c, Tang Dynasty, China.