Colourful Day

Fun day today. A friend whom I hadn't seen for ages, she was also a teacher of mine, Virginia Jones (Ginny) was on the island to prepare for a workshop she's conducting for "Lines in the Sand" next month. A ceramicist originally but now she includes ephemeral installations in her repertoire was checking out sites and materials. She had researched historical references in the NSI Historical Museum yesterday thanks to Elizabeth and Geoff's help.

One thing we found that she won't be using, as we think it is in a reserve, is a palette of vibrant ochres, look at these.

Geoff tells me the above photo is originally of flow-banded rhyolite which has weathered to kaolinitic clay and silica over a few hundred thousand years. There are pockets of clay but it is only in small areas. Sorry about awful photos taken with my phone.

Looking up a gully at the many colours.

We had lots to talk about and as we work in isolation most of the time it was great to hear about her work and news of other clay people.  I will attach a photo from her blog of her work. Hope she won't mind but take a look at her site. http://www.virginia-jones.blogspot.com.au/

A day or so ago after I'd crawled out of bed after a virus that had kept me out of the shed, Geoff and I went over to Main Beach Causeway to look at the pumice stone accumulation still on the beach. The last two photos are taken from the same spot looking in different directions, it breaks your heart.

The plastic washed out of rivers and thrown in the sea has attached itself to the large rafts of pumice floating from underwater volcanic eruptions between Tonga and New Zealand and they have washed ashore on poor old Straddie.

Hard to believe this is taken from the same spot looking east.

Back in the shed today at loooong last. Plates, plates, plates, panic, panic, panic.

One last photo from the ochre pit, kangaroo prints preserved in the clay.