No Cool Title, Just Stuff..............

Buen dia! We are seeing brilliant sunsets at night. After the sunsets and late into the evening we have been getting chipichipi rains and bright displays of lightning.

And we are paying dearly now during the day. The humidity this week has been hovering around eighty to ninety percent and the temperatures have been well over a hundred. Now this would not be so bad if we only had some wind, but there is not any at all.

I have received a number of custom glass orders and as soon as I return from my walk or ride in the morning, I have been retreating to the laundry room to cut glass. It is stifling in there and we are down to one small working fan. There are no ceiling fans in that room. I have been working with a wet rag around my head, but I don't think that helps at all. When I cold work, or grind glass, I use a face mask and goggles, now that is suffocating as well. I look like the creature from the black lagoon with a towel around its head.

Both Senor and Humberto continue to put in a good four hours and Senor retreats to the bedroom and the mini split for short little breaks while Humberto hides briefly under the mesquite.

Below you can see Senor up on the roof where the beams are now in and ready for the vigas. The first section of vigas will come out above the door for about eight feet.

In the second photo, from last year, you can see how far the original roof extended and then, you can see the Hilton Garden Room, which was under the old roof. I am hoping to recreate the garden room, temporarily of course, once the vigas and the roof are in. Oh, you know, Senor may have other plans, but I hope to win out.In addition to cutting glass, I did make it to the clay sculpting class at the museum. There were only a handful of us for the four day class. The fellow in the blue and white shirt is the instructor. This class was the mask sculpting class and the calaca katrina class will be in the fall.
The instructor, Jorge Mendevil, is a very talented sculptor and Ana, next to him, is a clay artist as well.

Across from our class, young teens were sculpting clay jewelry.

And down the hall, the violin class was being held. A little screechy, but some very determined kids were there every day.

In the mornings, the kids come for clay class and their work is spread out to dry on the museum floor. This will all be fired soon out at the Uvalama kiln and I believe you can look back through my labels to see the actual firing we did last year.

Here is my first mask below. I put it on the floor in the kids' section, had a look around and realized that most of their work was so much better than mine. So I picked it up again and moved it away from all that professional looking stuff. Then the ears fell off my guy and I wondered why in the world I even put ears on him to begin with. Maybe I can glue them back on after the fire or maybe they will get lost in the kiln, which might be a good thing.

Well, the rest of the mascaras I made were really no better. I hope they will look better after they are fired, so I will show them to you at a later date. However, Jorge did say all my eyes have good, soulful expressions. Do you see that? A soulful expression? I studied it for quite a while, but I don't see it.

I am just glad the kids are not in my class. Their work is incredibly creative and mine is just well, created.

Okie dokie, I am off to Navajoa to buy a new floor fan for the laundry room work shop. The problem with custom orders is I cannot just put six or seven pieces in the kiln. I have to keep cutting and cutting to get around sixty items, which is what fits in the kiln and justifies a fire. So, a new fan will help cool down the room a little. Maybe a pretty head towel, too, something with flowers on it.

Air conditioning in new old car, a K freeze for the drive, a lovely morning.

Que tengas buen dia! linda lou

End of the Clay Tale

Buen dia!

Below is a lovely photo Senor shot from the roof top last evening. You can just see the thunderheads building to the north on the horizon. It took those clouds almost a day to get here as it is now pouring rain this afternoon. Maybe we will go beyond the four inches we got here on Durango Sunday night. The air is fresh and very fragrant, the smell of rain and flowers.


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The end of the clay tale is near. We did not see anything come out of the kiln, Senor had a bridge day that lasted until six. Then I missed two more firings out in Uvalama. They just had to fire when they had to fire and there was really not any way for us to know about it.

Today there was a presentation at Casa de la Cultura, for the children to show off their prized pieces and receive certificates, so I went up this morning to join in and take photographs.

Outside Cultura, I snapped a few photos and you can really see the montanas are greening up. A few more rains and they will be very brilliant and tropical and lush.

Inside, the fired clay was presented for viewing and the children and their families were excited to see their work.

Sadly a few pieces were broken, but Jorge kindly explained to the families that glue will fix anything. In the plaque below you can see the clay pretty much remained adobe, but has some discoloration with a smoky fired look. Jorge says these could be glazed and fired again, but the purpose of his class would be for the children to paint them with acrylics.

Here is my candle holder ..................maybe it will look better painted.

and the pieces for my wind chime, with some type of creature on top of the right one.


and my wall plaque...............................looks like it did before firing.

Some of the kids who participated are in the photo below with the teachers, upper left.




So, now I will need to paint these things and see if I can even turn the wind chime into a wind chime and I don't know about that candle holder. jorge said maybe I shoud turn it upside down and it will look like some hrapes....hanging. I will think about that..............

For about two weeks now I have been hearing a large band practicing.

Just like the 'Elusive Bongo' post, I have been out on new old bike to find the source. I finally found it today at Casa de la Cultura. It is remarkably large, about twenty five members, drums, tubas, clarinets, flutes, trumpets, trombones, saxophones and snare drums. The players are all young kids in their teens and early twenties, and are being conducted by Ramon Alcantar, a local music teacher who is also a very talented musician.

The band has been organized and supported by the Casa de la Cultura and Century Art, an independent music and art organization from the states that is owned by an Alamos American resident.

Each day I have been listening to the band practice and I would say, they should keep up the practice, they have amazing potential. How great to see people this young interested in learning and playing instruments. I hope you enjoy their performance! adios! linda lou

The First Kiln Fire in Uvalama

Hola!


We are home after a long hot morning of helping transport the clay pieces to the small town of Uvalama and the firing.
Senor has a good book going, the air conditioning is going and I want to show you how the morning went.


Below are some of the fishies that were sculpted. Here is Jorge, the comex paint bass man and teacher.

And this is Tiffany. She is on loan from her college in Atlanta. She is working on her internship and chose to come to Alamos to teach sculpting, so she and Jorge are working together and they make a great team.

WHOA!!!!!! Senor just got a phone call. The bridge group is waiting for him and he did not know there is a game. Book is tossed on the floor, shoes are on and he is outta here.

Wow, I don't know how to feel, that happened so fast.

HOME ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But before I get wild and crazy and swing from the chandeliers, back to the post.

About twelve folks were out to help transport and watch the firing. Here is the kiln, at the Museum curator's Uvalama property, near where we dug the dirt the other day.

The kiln is made of ladrillos and mortar.

The inside, with slats for air circulation.




Below, Jorge loads the kiln. Everything goes in a tight fit, in many layers. If something is even still slightly damp it will not get fired today. Yesterday I made a round plaque with our street name and number but it is still damp and won't go in. Anything damp might explode and then break everything else.

After all the pieces are in, a thin layer of tin and scrap metal and broken pot shards are put in.

Pine is broken to fit the fire hole. As soon as the fire begins to smoke, a few tecates are opened and passed around.
More wood gets added.
This sheet of tin will cover the top of the kiln.




But first, as long as there is already a fire going, let's heat up some soup.

We asked how hot they will let the fire get. They don't know...........until it is hot enough, said Jorge, in SpanishEnglish. We asked how long will they fire..................until everything is done, said Jorge in SpanishEnglish. We asked if we should stay or when we should come back......................when it is done, said Jorge in SpanishEnglish.............. come at four or five.

Someone asked if he had his comex bass there, no it is at the other house, he said.........but I have a bucket, I can make another. Our friend Squier, who, with his wife, hosted the wonderful barbeque the other night and builds and plays mandolins said he might bring out the mandolin tonight as well.

Now Senor generally plays bridge until six, so I mentioned this to him as he flew out the door and he said he would try and get out early. Well, I do not play bridge, but I know, if you are partnered up in a card came........you just don't get out early, there is no such thing. It is not like going to a party, being ready to leave and telling the hostess it is time to go.

So, I am not sure we will make it out to Uvalama later. We may miss a very cool impromptu jam session and the removal of the first pieces.

If we miss it today, I think the damp pieces will be fired manana and perhaps we will go then...........................stay tuned ..........

What's Goin' On

Buen dia. That possible storm became a nothing. We went to the barbeque and except for a few raindrops, everyone stayed relatively dry.



There was a wonderful mix of the summer foreign population, the Alamos Mexicano community and some very talented young musicians from the states of Michoacan and Sinaloa and Sonora. These young men are here in Alamos to sell their art in a new shop on the main street of town and they just happen to all be excellent musicians as well. So a full blown jam session lasted well into the early morning hours and we all had a great time. The mayor and his wife attended and we were even surprised with some outstanding Mexican opera which was performed by two members of the mayor's party.

I love to sing and got in my Donovan, Marshall Tucker and Arlo Guthrie jam time along with everyone else. There were beautiful Mexican love songs, current Mexican hits, great old American folk songs, moving mandolin and violin performances, solos from many, and even our good friend, Steve, let loose with a moving rendition of House of the Rising Sun and played his harp as well.


We went home at two am.....................



These brothers are from Michoacan, they all play instruments, they all sing and they are all talented woodworkers, maskmakers, oil painters and sculptors.



Below is Jorge, a talented scupture and musician. He plays a type of bass instrument constructed from a five gallon comex paint bucket, a broom handle and a thick string. It is amazing how he knows what note will be played on every part of that broom handle and it is right on pitch. There was a young man there with his large bass as well and you could not tell the sound of the two instruments apart.

Yesterday we did have a good storm in the afternoon. Although brief, it gave us a good idea of how the four completed roofs are holding up, and we are pleased to say...............great!

In the photo below the impermeable has been spread just in time to dry and then the rain came. It is a rubbery white paint mix that coats the roof top and is the last thing to go on a completed roof. It is what Senor covered the current bedroom and kitchen tool room with in November 2008 before Norbert hit us.

I am thrilled the four rooms got coated before yesterday's rain and everything went as planned. It is just putting us that much closer to getting walls plastered and floor in and being able to have more covered space.

The portal roof below is not completed and you can see the mortar between the placas. The rain comes through here.

We still do not have the doors up, but the iron gates for the windows have been made. It has been difficult to varnish the doors, the humidity makes the varnish goop up like glue almost as soon as it goes on.

So I am being patient and we are spending a lot of time locking and unlocking doors, just being smart about we leave out in the open. A new timer light outside the kitchen tool room door brightens the outdoors at night and we feel more secure. I guess we are really on Mexican time and when the doors go up, well, they go up.

The museum has been offering a few classes that I am attending. The first is a clay sculpture class. There have been five gringas and about thirty five ninos and it has been very interesting.

The gringas hopped in a car yesterday and drove to the museum curator's home in Uvalama, a small village west of here, well known for its red clay and native artists who sculpt and fire it in adobe ovens. We dug more clay, sifted it, added water and prepared it for the morning class.

Below is Jorge, one of several clay sculptors and one of the teachers of our class. He is also the musician who played the comex bass at the barbeque.

Back at the museum we have each sculpted something different every day, a fish or a frog, a mask or a round lamp, an elephant or a plaque. On Saturday, everything will be transported to Uvalama where it will be fired. Drying below are some of the things made by the ninos and gringas.

Here is my contribution to the 'make what you want day', a candle holder and pieces for a wind chime. It took me over an hour to decide what to make, so the teacher told me to take it home and finish it. Today I made a wall plaque with our street name and number.

Then in the afternoons I have been going to a fabric painting class. This class is a little different. There are about thirty Mexicano senoras in the class and I don't quite feel comfortable yet. Only two of them have spoken to me. But yesterday a little girl about eight came and sat next to me and she was very chatty. Mostly she enjoyed telling me how to paint, but I felt better. So at the end of class, the instructor ripped off about three meters of muslin and told me to go home and wash it.

I am not sure if that means I have been accepted or not. Here is my painted fabric. I guess I could make a pillow out of it or a napkin.

So that's my week. Later this afternoon, after class, we are going out to a corral to see some quarterhorses being trained and manana I will go out to Uvalama to see all the clay get fired.

It is cloudy out, but very little breeze, so I am not planning on getting excited about any possibilities of rain. But I will let you know if it happens.

adios, linda lou

Who Knows Where the Time Goes?

Buenas tardes.

Since my last post a week ago, we have had ten drops of rain. That is it.

It was most exciting a few days ago when the clouds were dark and thick and there was thunder in the distance and suddenly Senor stood and ran for cover...................only to discover it was Cookies clawing the rug. Well....................said Senor....................it sounded like rain.
Most of our cloudy days have been like the photo below. Nothing more, but with Hurricane Alex about to make landfall on the eastern coast of Mexico, we may just get some rain soon.


As I mentioned in the last post, we discovered we truly can get live soccer on the internet. We have watched soccer daily now since June 14th. What a life!
You are either a fan or not a fan, but we could run the fan club for any of the teams, those eliminated and those still in the rounds.

Soccer is not too importante in Sonora. Baseball and boxing are more important, however soccer is big in many other states and Mexico produced a game booklet which also is a lottery of sorts, but I have not figured out how one would play it. So, I use it for score keeping. Mostly it is full of glossy photos of skimpily clad girls who look like they have been run over by wild animals. But it is a fun little score keeping tool.

When we have had breaks from watching soccer we have actually run outside and done a little work.

Senor suggested, after seeing me painting the cupboards, that it might be time for me to paint the portal vigas. So, in between yesterday's two games, I did that. Then while we watched the afternoon game, Umberto and Chuey began placing the placas.

We are pretty sure we are the only people in town with white-washed herringbone placas.

Also, while we have been watching soccer, Umberto and Chuey have finished the concrete columns in the north wall. Senor is always out there, working with them, pouring the concrete, troweling it down. So, I am sure they wonder what we are doing in here. Umberto is deaf, so he would not hear us yelling and screaming as a goal is scored. Chuey listens to ranchero music on his cell phone and totally ignores us unless we are communicating with him verbally.

Tomorrow, they will begin adding the cap to the wall. It will be like the one below. Senor will work with them, as there are game breaks today and tomorrow.

With the game break on, I have also finished a few things. And I have started a few new things.


I completed painting and glossing the candlestick holder. Senor still thinks it is a kindergarten craft project. I like it, but it will need a different candle someday.

A wonderful lady offered me the use of her 'how to paint wood furniture' books. They are full of design stencils. Unfortunately, all of the directions for painting are in German. I went and bought carbon paper at the Mercado and will copy the designs onto the cupboards and just cross my fingers and paint.

Below are the some of the designs I plan to use. It is going to be very busy. I think that lots and lots of different designs will help hide my mistakes.

While I was at the Mercado, I decided to make a bedspread for the bed. Now, this is a very long term project. But I think it will work, don't you? Below is the first embroidery attempt since 1970, when my sister and I removed the leather tops of our Dr. Scholl's and replaced them with these cute strips of muslin that we embroidered.

So, tomorrow is another FREE day and I should stay out of the Mercado. Who knows what other project I might come up with.......

I'll leave you with this. On June 18th, we celebrated two years of living permanently in Mexico. As I have said many times, I don't know where the time goes here.