Puppy Rescued from Teapot.
By BRITTON BROUN
A tiny puppy was freed by four Gisborne firefighters after its head became wedged in a teapot.
The bull-mastiff pup, about 10 weeks old, suffered a small nick to its nose.
A fire truck raced to the scene at about 9.45am yesterday, initially believing a person had become trapped.
Gisborne senior station officer Mike Milne said the crew had struggled to envisage the situation.
"I thought that must be some teapot, but they'd be able to breathe through the spout anyway."
The crew was met by a worried looking couple standing at the gate of their home. They were holding the dog, its head stuck inside the old porcelain teapot.
With a sledgehammer resting against it, Mr Milne tapped the teapot a few times with an engineer's hammer, breaking it apart.
"He was free in a minute and off on his next adventure. He was as happy as anything. When we were leaving I heard the owners saying they'd be calling him Teapot."
Mr Milne said he regularly went out to help animals in danger – from cats trapped in walls to dogs down cliffs. He said cats stuck up trees were "a real pain in the neck".
"Often we're not even needed because they can come down."
The owners of the puppy could not be contacted last night.
The folks over at Unfold Fab design studio have come up with something pretty cool. They have taken a basic, inexpensive prototyping machine caled the RapMan and enabled printing of ceramic slurry. Posted here is their first attempt to create a two walled vessel. Pretty cool.
Now to be clear, this is not the first time that ceramics have been rapid prototyped. But what is so cool is that the machine is cheap and the materiel being printed is just we extruded clay. Although they are not completely clear on what is used.
As they describe it,what they have done is to hook up syringes filled with slurry (sounds like Stuck Up Slip) that is used to extrude layers. How this different from other forms of rapid prototyping? Those systems utilize a dry powder and the printer lays down a binder which the clay powders adhere to. This system is just clay.
This kind of D.I.Y. innovation can really change things that we can do in forwarding our objects.
Pretty cool.
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When it rains, it pours.
Once again we return to this notion of stacking pots. I think that may be my favorite for a few reasons.
1) It is made of CLAY.
2) It makes effective use of stacking with a single shape (+1)
3) I love maps and blueprints.
I don't often lavish, unabashed praise. Something about this set makes me very happy. To me it seems near perfect. Functional, interesting as a stack, yet the individual plates are a little odd yet seemingly functional. I also love that they did not fail to detail the inside as well.
Named The Palace Collection from Italian company Seletti. Designed by Alessandro Zambell. You can find it here.
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Luscious
Kristen Kieffer shared this link about these fascinating houses. I love them because the are in line with the bridges made of snow project that I just had my Freshman students do. there is something wonderful about working with limitations. The way that function and basic materials force us into making decisions with limited scope but infinite potential.
The Mugsum people in northern Cameroon are known for thier clay houses. Gigantic in scale and heavily decorated, these houses function as housing, but also provide circulation and cooling.
Beautiful.
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Hi All,
I'm swamped today, so I have no time to post, exemplified by the fact that this post if going up a 4pm.
So I present to you, glow in the dark toilet paper.
Awesome.
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Unfortunately my Google translator is acting up, so I can't tell you too much about these cutting boards. Except they are called Cut & Paste. But, from what I can tell, they are an interesting concept of the cutting board. Combining it with a porcelain dish that can be used as a receptacle.
Mrs. Rose and I like to cook and last night as I was chopping away at our Chicken/Almond stir fry I was thinking. One of the smartest things that we have gotten for the kitchen is a few dozen tiny little bowls for components. So after chopping or measuring we can set the ingredients aside, ready to go. That sort of efficiency adds to the dishes, but it makes the cooking itself go a lot easier.
I think this cutting board does the same thing. Creating a depository for the food that you are working with. Keeping it aside and clean ready for the stove.
My only question/critique is if does the bottom have foot pads? Because if the bottom is raw porcelain or worse glaze, it is going to slide with the cutting, not to speak of the impact could fracture the porcelain.
Otherwise, quite nice.
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Apparently this is the new mascot toy for a Japanese toilet company Toto that specialized in technologically advanced sanitaryware.
Good times.
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Returning to the subject of stacking pots, we encounter this set of stacking pots in the form of a Ming Vase.
A nice refrence and a nice form. With one fatal flaw. It is made of Melamine!
ACK! CHOKE! DEATH!
How could they? Make a beautiful dining set with a lovely ceramic form, interesting contrast between the interior and exterior decoration. And yet they make it out of that plastic crap.
Well, I never!
For this reason I won't tell you about the maker, but you can find them here.
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I love to collect the list of celebrities who indulge in clay. It is nice to know that Matthew Sweet, Parker Posey, Gina Davis, Barry Bostwick all dig the dirt.
Jeff Bridges, The Dude, Starman, Kevin Flynn in Tron is getting a lot of press for his movie Crazy Heart and the word is that he may win an Oscar for it.
In one of his recent interviews he admitted to getting dirty.
If I'm not creating something, I get tired of myself, so I do painting, music, ceramics and photography. It gets boring doing one thing - I get restless when I'm acting all the time, so I like to jump from movies to music to the camera.
Welcome to the club Dude...but do you have to use so many cuss words?
After my grumblings about Valentine's Day I heard form a bunch of people, some in support. Most letting me know that I am unromantic and that VD is a great thing (BTW you can get a shot for that and clear it right up).
None-the-less I return to the refrain that the wonderful Mrs. Rose does not care for the day herself. So I get off the hook.
Still we had a lovely day out and had a nice dinner with our friends the F-V's
But to again kneel in worship to the great lady who I follow follow around like a Pilot Fish, living in the shadow of the great and mighty shark.
It is m'lady who dug up, this pretty cool piece. Made by Tsang Cheung Shing this beautiful piece of clay is something to fall in love with.
So to my Mrs. Rose (The only person I know for sure reads this silly blog). I love and worship you and I don't know how I would live without you.
Happy (belated) Valentines Day.
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This series of shallow bowls is called "Every Drop Counts" and allows the consumer to expose the story as they slurp their soup.
I have to admit that I am a sucker for story telling. I really don't think that there is enough storytelling in Art, but specifically Ceramics. It seems that too many people are concerned with the conceptual one-liner. This takes a nice twist by incorporation function and time, yet the simplicity of a silhouette. Well done.
Designed by Ayda Anlagan is a London based industrial designer.
I'm really kicking myself. I don't have a title for this post that is better than the name the maker gave these speakers, which is "Hi-Fido". I thought the puns were my job.
Apparently ceramic speakers are the new thing. This is the third pair I have seen (the first is here). They all tout the "Noise Deadening" acoustical properties. "(they)use the acoustic properties of ceramic to diffuse hi quality sound with a bass reflex system". I guess this is true, but as I have never heard ceramic speakers in person and I am not an audio engineer.
Designed by Matteo Cibic who also designed these popular terrariums these speakers could be man's new best friend.
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Ok Folks,
Sometimes I get critical becuase I believe that some things are unnecessary or over designed. When I do, people tend to pop us and tell me how wrong I am, and that's fine. We are all allowed to have different opinions. So it is going to be up to all of you to come up with a defense of this one, 'cause I got nothing.
This is the Finger Stirring lid from New Plan Design and all I can say is,
Really...Really?
You know, certain tools have stuck around through history because they do their job just fine. Such is the case with the spoon. It does just fine .Is it perfect? No, but it's ok.
Where as with this "Lid" I really don't know what do say.
I know that in the States we don't use lids while actively drinking from coffee cups (travel cups excluded). And that in some countries they do. But still.
And are you really gaining that much in functionality by eliminating the need for a spoon but adding a weird lid? Never mid the fact that this "finger" is always going to be hanging out in your beverage? No Thank You.
whatever...
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This series of porcelain spooled thread vases are by Mara Skujeniece.
There is something I really like about the ambitions attempt to capture something difficult and extremely textured in the mold. Getting that kind of texture requires a lot of failure in the process. As I have told my students, you need to fail to know how to do things right.
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In honor of my good lady wife, Mrs Rose. I present this stacked Road Cone Breakfast set. I do this for my wonderful lady as a way of telling others "Danger!" "Warning!" "Stay Away!"
Of course, I jest. The lovely Mrs. made stacking sets of dishes for a long time, so I though she would appreciate it.
This set was composed and constructed by Pierre Lescop and contains an espresso cup, juice glass, tea cup, cereal bowl and a small plate.
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As they say the proof is in the pudding. Tony Clennell a potter up in Canada stopped by Pottery Supply House in Oakville Ontario, our awesome new supplier, in the Great White North. Tony picked up some Porcelain for the People and put it to the test. He made some gorgeous teapots with the clay and here is what he has to say about it.
Well it threw and trimmed like a dream. Usually if I can throw porcelain I hate trimming it. This seems to have a coarse particle size that makes for trimming with some expression to it.
I tortured this clay. I dipped it in my local slip clay, slaked down the trimmings and mixed in some sand with the casting slip and laid it on thick. It took the punishment.
See Tony's full review at his blog.
I love it when people torture our clay. Tony's teapots of Fred's 75 hour Anagama really show how rugged and versatile the clay really is. That is something about this clay that really goes unrecognized. How much torture the clay can take. It has been designed for versatility, both in execution and technique. It not only throws better, and thinner, but it is also designed to resit torque and distortion that is common with porcelains thrown on the wheel. That kind of torture opens porcelains up to everyone. Beginners should no longer be afraid of Porcelain. This clay gives beginners and casual potters the great clays that the master have been keeping to themselves for all these years.
If you are feeling slightly sadistic, and want something to torture, go ahead and try Porcelain for the People. You wont be disappointed.
For our Canadian Customer we sell exclusively through Pottery Supply House. If you are in the south, try Atlanta Clay or for the rest of the U.S. you can head over to www.MattandDavesClays.com and we will ship directly to you.
That is what Mrs. Rose told me this morning and it made my heart all a-flutter.
We are both those kind people who get a little queezy by the notion of love having to be all hearts and flowers. To us love is sarcastic and exciting, down and dirty
That is why, I hate Valentines day.
I'm not going to go on a rant about how the whole thing is a crock made by the candy, card and flower industries. Or how society expects me to express my love of my wife on just one particular day. I tell my wife that I love and appreciate her everyday. So Valentines day can kiss my a$$.
If you do like that crap. enjoy this my with a shadow decal making a heart, shape with the handle. bleah!
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OMG I'm dying with the dryness right now. Not to get to graphic, but it is bloody nose season, and man do I suffer. We have a humidifier, but it only does so much. That is why I love these functional attachments for those of you out there who have radiators. Designed by Il Coccio Design Collective these white porcelain receptacles sit on the radiator and allow the heat to do the work for you. All while appearing excessively fashionable.
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These Snout Cups are by Freaks United, otherwise known as Jorine and Egbert Jan
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thanks to Mrs. Rose, I hope you feel better.
Sorry to be brief, but I have to take care of my lady and get ready for class.
I hate Bananas, yet I love Viking hats and fun ceramics. That is why I am so conflicted by this great banana holder. And to top it off, it is wall mountable. Sweet.
I wonder if if I can use it for something else. like Chorizo storage. Yeah, that's the ticket.
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