Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Hill builder

I often describe myself as a hill builder.
No-one has ever asked me for more information.
I think they think I am refering to a preference for country music.
This could not be further from the truth, even though I do play mandolin.
I'm a hill builder because I build hills
I build hills because I live on a flood plain
This photo is of the blue garden I built after the 1993 flood.
The flood height was the top of those steps in the garden, 6 sand bags high around the house.
No water came inside.
We were not allowed to sand bag anything other than the house which is fair enough.
The garden bed on the left was created from the sand bags around the house.
The stone circle,(which is not totally obvious from these images) I refer to as a conversation circle, because the wall is all at perfect sitting height.
An as it is circular, all persons sitting there would be able to see and hear anyone also sitting there.
I thinks this work was done around 2006.

This is a little hard to recognise as the same gate way.

It is amazing at how quickly the passion fruit vine covered in the fence.
Providing many passion fruits to add to our market stall.
The fence and gate is designed to keep the dogs safe while we are at work all day.
I am pleased to say that I will be at work again as of next week,
just 1 day teaching sculpture.
Students were slow to enroll.
Better than nothing.

3 comments:

Annie said...

I love the title Hill Builder. I think I will tell people that from now on when they ask what my sister does. It sounds very intrigeing.

Gary's third pottery blog said...

passion fruit, just growing there, like that? wowie :)

Gary's third pottery blog said...

JB! I mix my own glaze from my own recipes which I have fiddled with and developed. The glaze on the Buster teapot is a big favorite, a spring green named after my cat's eyes (also spring green): SPIKE!
The shark stuff is a really lucky experiment. I have those bowls and want there to be some sort of ocean-water look to it. The grey-blue glaze is perfect color for the shark, and for the sake of ease, I dip the whole half a bowl in that. BUT, I wondered, how do I leave the shark grey blue but the water around him a different color? So I tried using a brush with a light blue second glaze on the area around the shark, and the way the light blue reacted on top of the grey blue looks like ocean froth and foam and waves! A happy accident indeed.
I have not tried any of these yet, but print this out and try some and see what it is like, that is what I am planning! http://www.jnevins.com/cone6glazes.htm