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alaska and clay imprint of grandson's hand

updated fri 17 sep 99

 

Tim Skeen on tue 14 sep 99

I am on my way to Anchorage Alaska on Saturday. It will be my first time
there and I am looking forward to visiting some art galleries and maybe a
few potters if anyone has an open studio for visitors. My time will depend
on the arrival of my grandson!!! Yep it is my first grandbaby and I'm
sooooo excited. My daughter hopes to hold out until I get there but the
little guy is in the drivers seat when it comes to travel time and
arrival!!!

What would be the best clay to travel with to make his hand and foot imprint
so I can bring it back to Virginia? I would like to make gifts for family
members for Christmas...
TIA for any info. about clay or galleries...

Audrey
mailto:t.askeen@worldnet.att.net
http://t.askeen.home.att.net

John Rodgers on thu 16 sep 99

Once in Alaska call the Art Dept. at the University of Alaska at Anchorage.
Inquire as to who some local potters are and also ask about Alaska Clay. The
potters can help.

You may want to do it differently but I think it would be cool to have the
little fellow's prints - hands and feet..... in the clay of his native soil
-----Alaska. Alaska has an abundance of a charcoal black/gray clay that when
fired turns a deep rust red. I have seen some wonderful work done in this clay.
Sometimes it is used in a throwing body, other times it is used in slip cast
clay. During the Russian occupation of Alaska last century, at the town of
Kenai, they operated a brickyard, making bricks from this Alaska clay. I,
myself, have gone to cuts in the road banks along the Sterling Highway near
Kenai lake on the way to Kenai and gathered dried chunks of clay exposed in the
surface of cuts made when the highway was built. In the spring when the ground
is saturated with water from spring snowmelt, the banks often sluff of and
expose huge veins of the stuff. I have never seen any other color natural clay
in Alaska.

Anyway, Someone in the Anchorage area will certainly know about the clay, and I
know the University would be a really good source of information, Both for
potters and for Alaska clay. Expecially since they developed a throwing body
utilizing this clay.

Congrats on the new Grandson, and good luck on the prints.

John Rodgers
In New Mexico after 30 years in Alaska and 15 years in clay on the Kenai
Peninsula.

Tim Skeen wrote:

> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> I am on my way to Anchorage Alaska on Saturday. It will be my first time
> there and I am looking forward to visiting some art galleries and maybe a
> few potters if anyone has an open studio for visitors. My time will depend
> on the arrival of my grandson!!! Yep it is my first grandbaby and I'm
> sooooo excited. My daughter hopes to hold out until I get there but the
> little guy is in the drivers seat when it comes to travel time and
> arrival!!!
>
> What would be the best clay to travel with to make his hand and foot imprint
> so I can bring it back to Virginia? I would like to make gifts for family
> members for Christmas...
> TIA for any info. about clay or galleries...
>
> Audrey
> mailto:t.askeen@worldnet.att.net
> http://t.askeen.home.att.net