Raku and Jazz...

This week started out with one of my favorite things, Raku. Totally unexpectedly. I walk into class on Tuesday and one of my classmates casually mentions, "I'm rakuing today if you want to add something." Are you kidding? I want to add EVERYTHING!

When I first began throwing clay, I was a student at Hands in Clay on Magazine St. Raku was only done twice a year because the instructor couldn't raku on site and we had to drive to his place in Pointe Coupee. We couldn't fire anything too big and could only bring 3 pieces.

Anyhoo, apparently we can do as much (almost) raku as we want. No one told me. We only have a week and a half of school left. Two more firings, the way I see it. Yaaaaayyyyyy!! Here's some stuff I fired that day. Let me just add, there's not much of a selection of glazes. Extremely disappointing. What's pictured here is the clear glaze and a gold glaze (something new that Allison (my classmate) mixed that morning. It was new and didn't work out the way we wanted. They all look the same to me. Back to the drawing board on that one. Otherwise, I was very pleased with the crackling on these pieces.

I also had a surprise excursion this week to Sweet Lorraine's jazz club. This came via a an invite I finagled from my friend, Ben, who text'd me, asking about one of my favorite musicians, Mario Abney. I first encountered Mario and his band at a little club on Dectur street, doing an open mic night and accompanied by the smooth vocals of Elliott Luv. Funky, funky, loose your shit kind of jazz. I was hooked immediately. I can't tell you how many times I returned. I feel like their mascot. I added some pictures I took of them at one of their House of Groove performances on Claiborne Avenue. Anyway, I had a wonderful evening drinking tequila and bullshitting with Ben while Mario played in the background. Not a bad week so far.