A Tile Trip To England and Wales
This file contains the e-mails I posted to the clayart mailing list describing
our recent trip to the UK. We set out to see as many tile and pottery related
sites as we could find. We found a few.
Below are two groups of links to various sites we saw, followed by
the text.
Tile and Ceramics Sites Described in this Trip Report
Primarily Tile-Related
Primarily Ceramics-Related
------------------------------- Message Contents -------------------------------
Hi all-
My wife and I just returned from a ceramics intensive
trip to the UK. Below are some highlights from the trip. Before
I summarize, I'd like to acknowledge all of the clayart-ers who
were generous with their suggestions of where to go and what to
see. Without this advice, we would have missed many of the places
we really enjoyed through ignorance of their existence.
The honor roll is:
- Jane Aebersold <Jane.Aebersold@ADMIN.GETTYSBURG.EDU>
- Edward A Beimborn <beimborn@CSD.UWM.EDU>
- Robert S. Bruch <rsb8@PO.CWRU.EDU>
- John Eden <popa0193@PO-BOX.MCGILL.CA>
- Shirley Freed <lfreed@sage.cc.purdue.edu>
- Brian Gartside <briang@CLAY.AK.PLANET.CO.NZ>
- Richard Gralnik <rlg@PATUXENT.DESKTALK.COM>
- Jenny Lewis <JLEWIS@LBS.LON.AC.UK>
- Joyce Miller <jmiller@genome.wi.mit.edu>
- Ken Stevens <kstevens@UPS.EDU>
- Patrick Veerkamp <veerkamp@RALPH.TXSWU.EDU>
Thanks again folks! Hope I didn't miss anyone. Apologies if I did.
Here is the random assortment of places we went, roughly in the
order we saw them.
Unfortunately, the ceramics collection is now closed for redisplay.
supposed to be a good studio pottery oriented collection though,
and the lone piece of Jane Hamlyn salt-glazed ware (a shallow
casserole form w/handles) on display was a good teaser. Nice color
and strong, substantial form.
(Non-ceramic note: Nottingham has a long history of lace making
and an interesting costume museum for the so inclined.)
An impressive collection of the "industrial" pottery
of the area (Wedgwood etc., not really my taste but technically
impressive), lots of English slipware (like the Toft plates you
see in many books), and a very nice tile collection, mostly Victorian
British. Much as tile is dear to me, my favorite exhibit was a
new collection of British studio pottery. The studio pottery collection
came from a local collector whose interest was going around Britain
from school to gallery to craft fair and buying pieces he liked
by lesser known or unknown potters. He passed away recently (this
year maybe?) and donated the lot to the city. An incredible variety
of work represented. Hundreds of pieces practically stacked on
top of each other to make room for them all. Not the ideal way
to display them, but you get to see a lot of work. Finally, if
you're into cow cream pitchers or "gag" mugs with frogs
in them, this place is for you! Even if you're not, the exhibits
are good for a chuckle.
The museum is a "working" pottery located in one of
the typical potteries of the industrial revolution period. Plenty
of displays and demos. We saw people casting, throwing, jiggering,
making flowers and painting china. Not a lot new to me, except
for the flowers. Although I can't say I appreciate porcelain flowers
much, watching the incredibly deft hands of the woman making them
was a real treat. She had been at it for 40 years! The porcelain
had been dosed with gum to improve the plasticity. The whole place
had plenty of atmosphere. Two big bottle kilns were set up to
show what they were like when in use. The "colors" room
was interesting. Lots of test tiles and big crocks that once held
oxides of one sort or another. A nice, fairly large collection
of tiles from medieval to Victorian in a well done but a bit care
worn display. Well worth the visit.
Okay, so maybe Wedgwood might not be the ideal of the studio potter,
but it was still fun to see the place and learn a little history
of the "Potteries" as the area is known. Started with
a nice little video where we were convinced that Josiah Wedgwood
really did sit at the right hand of God (or at least single-handedly
created the English ceramics industry.) From there to a room full
of workstations where we saw demos of engine turning leather hard
teacup bodies, making Jasper ware sprigs, applying sprigs, banding
teacups, assembling Jasper cameos, cleaning up castings, and applying
overglaze decals. They also had a lone wheel set up where a guy
was giving kids a try at throwing. The required shop had just
about every piece of Wedgwood one could imagine. I found my lack
of aesthetic appreciation of just about all of Wedgwood's output
at war with my respect for the technical mastery the firm has
developed over a broad range of ceramic materials and processes.
I was also amazed at the number of hands that touched the ware
before the customer bought it. No wonder it costs so much!
More and better to come as time permits.
Tom Colson (contemplating my first real tile commission and hoping
I'm up to it)
tcolson@tec.raychem.com
------------------------------- Message Contents -------------------------------
Hi again, with another installment.
More Midlands area ceramic sights...
The first ceramic work we saw here was a single Lucy Rie bowl,
the first I'd ever seen in person and one I now recognize as typical
of her style. Rough, matte white glaze with a band of Mn bronze
around the rim and two narrow lines scratched around the circumference.
Talk about elegant! Now I understand all the traffic a few months
ago about her manganese bronze glaze. I'm glad I saved the refs
as it looks like a color and texture with a lot of potential.
What a loss we suffered when she passed away. We found the rest
of the ceramics display and I knew we were going to be there a
while. The museum has the most extensive collection of William
De Morgan tiles I've seen, as well as some of his pottery. He
was a master of the 2D space (area?) on a tile. I think his pottery
is a little less successful (maybe because his designs are more
suited to 2D work?). The museum also had the required cases of
Wedgwood and other "china" and a very nice case of vessels
by the Ruskin Pottery. You name it as far as special effect glazes,
and the folks at Ruskin did it. Copper reds, lustres, crater glazes,
crawling glazes, chuns, crystal glazes, crackle.... I believe
there is a book devoted to their work.
(Non-ceramic note: We were misled by the tourist office as to
the museum's opening time, so we went to see an exhibit next door
showing the history of technology in China. I almost couldn't
believe it when I discovered that almost all of the exhibits were
modern copies(!) of ancient artifacts. No matter how good the
copy is, it just doesn't seem the same to me. Making many of the
pieces must be a lot easier with modern technology and the soul
of the original creation certainly isn't in the piece. Has anyone
ever experienced such a thing in another place? Anyway, I was
glad we stayed because the craftspeople from China demonstrating
many traditional crafts were very interesting to watch.)
They
museum has a new gallery called "Craft of the Potter",
a broad but shallow display covering the history of ceramics and
particularly British ceramics. The exhibit is displayed very densely
and some non-ceramic objects are included to give a little context.
The CD-ROM application they had running to give you more info
(beyond the brief captions) about each piece as well as more general
information was well done. They museum has an extensive study
collection, case after case of British industrial pottery of all
descriptions. The collection also includes a small library. For
the tile types, the winner is a panel of Burne-Jones designed
tiles made by Morris et al. They illustrate a few scenes from
"Cinderella" (here called Cinder Wench(?)). The same
talent that stood Burne-Jones well in his paintings and stained
glass translates well to tiles.
Ironbridge is the cradle of
the industrial revolution. Must have been quite a place in its
time. Now, it's a cluster of museums, including the British industrial
revolution equivalent of Colonial Williamsburg called the Blist
Hill Open Air Museum. More interesting to me was the Jackfield
Tile Museum, home to lots of Victorian tiles. Your basic tile
heaven. Mostly dedicated to the work of Maw and Craven Dunhill,
one of whose premises form the present day site of the museum.
A recreated sample room, with floor to ceiling tile panels, lots
of tiled flanked fireplaces, sample cases, etc. In two other big
rooms there was a more general display of tiles by many makers.
All I can say is "Go and See!". Also in the room were
a number of displays related to the working papers (sketch books,
designs, layouts, school notes...) of one of the prominent designers
of the time (whose name escapes me). I enjoyed the insight into
the development of the creative force behind many of the pieces
on display. There is a working tilery in the museum called the
Decorative Tileworks. Their work is mostly tube lined and transparently
glazed, similar to the style very popular in the Art Nouveau period.
The character of the work suffers a bit (my opinion) due to the
exclusive use of dust pressed bisque blanks as the substrate.
Too uniform for my taste. The people working there were very friendly
and willing to answer questions. One of them taught me how to
pounce a pattern, which I'd previously tried but couldn't get
to work. A bit dishonestly (my opinion), they offer Pilkington's
factory made tiles for sale in a small shop mixed in with pieces
actually made on the premises. Also for sale in the shop were
some rather crude copies of the dust pressed encaustics made by
an outfit called Treamlod Tilery, somewhere in Pembroksire. Unfortunately,
that was just too far out of the way of anything else we planned
to see to make the effort to try to locate them. Nearby was the
old tileworks of Maw & Co., which is now a nice mixed use
space for craftspeople including workshops, apartments, etc. A
tilemaker has a studio there but he was out while we there.
(Non-ceramic
note: there's also an artist doing original work in the Pictish/Celtic
style. Nice to see someone doing new work in the style instead
of merely copying from manuscripts or Bain's book.)
We next saw tiles at...
A typical
small castle, a jumble of works from various eras. One small,
poorly lit :( room with a barred door :( :(, paved with medieval
two color inlaid tiles. Tough even to make out the patterns on
even the best of the tiles given the conditions under which they
were displayed. Even though the tiles were a disappointment, the
place was worth a visit. My wife described it as "the kind
of castle you could live in". Not too huge or fancy, just
sort of homey. It's definitely a fixer upper though :). Personally
I'd start with central heating!
(Non-ceramic features of interest: a beautiful room called the solar
paneled in the kind of quarter-sawn white oak you can't buy today and
covered with Jacobean carving like no one does today. Also, the gate
house is one of the most attractive half-timbered houses I've ever seen.
Three different kinds of half-timbering on the three stories. Not a plumb
or square surface to be found, but that's half the charm.)
Enough for now.
Tom Colson (thinking about carving tile models and making press
molds)
tcolson@tec.raychem.com
------------------------------- Message Contents -------------------------------
Hi all-
Hope these posts are getting through. My incoming email is busted but I think
the outgoing connection is okay. More tiles and such...
A ruined abbey (what other kind is there?) deserted except for us
and the lichen covered stones. Still in-situ are many medieval
tiles, both line impressed and two color inlaid. The best examples
had been taken up and relaid in a covered room that might have
been the chapter house. It was kind of small for that, though.
Quite a few of the green lead-glazed plain tiles looked sort of
like turnovers, I'm guessing due to over firing and bloating.
Here I discovered the inconsistent way tiles are cared for by
the various authorities (English Heritage, National Trust...).
At Stokesay, you basically couldn't see the tiles because you
were kept so far away from them. Here, many tiles were in the
ground and I saw obvious evidence of frost damage to many tiles
from last winter. Why the disparate levels of concern for the
tiles? Granted, the tiles in the ground were not much to look
at as far as decoration goes. The glazes had gone grey/black and
many tiles lacked any glaze at all. Still, seems odd to let some
rot and prevent one from even getting a good look at others.
Later, we saw even more tiles at...
Most of the
priory is long gone with the exception of the undercroft (paved
with Victorian encaustics while it was used as the entry to a
later mansion) and an extensive set of foundations that give you
a feel for the scale of the place. The site has a nice museum
with an extensive display about medieval tiles. Many examples,
and a step by step explanation of the process to make two color
inlaid tiles (carve stamp, roll slab, stamp, pour white slip,
scrape level, dry, sprinkle w/lead ash and fire). The display
was created during a re-enactment where they duplicated the best-guess
kiln and methods and made tiles. Well presented. The reproduction
kiln (made of tiles too) is on display out on the grounds. The
grounds themselves are quite beautiful and I'm sure even nicer
later in the season. Off to Yorkshire next, where the big draws
were...
Ancient Monuments with Tiles
Byland Abbey
Fountains Abbey
Rievaulx Abbey
All of these abbeys are pretty close to each other and each worth
a visit in their own right.
Has the most tiles still in situ, mostly mosaic of a variety of patterns, including
a rosette design worthy of any stained glass window I've seen
in a cathedral (one of the rosettes has been lifted and transferred
to the British Museum).
A HUGE place. Has a lot of mosaic, most taken up and reset on a raised dais
at one end of the abbey church. We were there on Good Friday and
a service was being held, with the altar and pulpit up on the
dais. The cellarage at one end of the abbey has more stone ceiling
vaults than I've ever seen in one place. Fountains had more tourists
visiting than any other place we'd been. (Easter holiday effect?).
Here we saw the
best in-situ two color inlaid tiles, usually those nearest walls
where they would have seen less traffic. The earth covering (for
frost protection) had just been removed and there were many newly
damaged tiles visible :(. I took an audio tour (w/ Walkman). These
things are a great idea. Again, here we see major inconsistency
in the care of tiles. At Fountains, many tiles had been taken
up and reset in the doorways such that you were forced to walk
on them and others from around the site had been reset on the
dais. At Byland there were "keep off the tiles" signs
all over, and at Reivaulx, the tiles had clearly been damaged
over the winter by frost. Go figure.
We ended up in Pickering as we wanted to tramp around the moors
a bit. So, we grabbed the little 18 mi long North York Moors Railway
(Who can resist a steam engine?!) and rode out to the end of the
line intending to get off to wander. Sleet, hail, and driving
rain made us change our mind, so we rode back and had time to
poke our heads into this little gallery across from the station.
I mention it because it is the one gallery we found that had a
variety of studio ceramics and other media. We stopped at many
places labeled "crafts" throughout our trip and I'm
sure you can guess what we found! Very commercial, touristy stuff.
Not so here. A friendly, small place with tiny cafe in the back
and staffed by people who know the artists/craftspeople whose
work they show. Most of the ceramic pcs were thrown vessels. One
artist whose work really caught me was John Egerton, a local (near
Whitby) potter. Some work clearly inspired by Leach (only inspired,
not cloned!). Others (my favorites) were larger vases/urns with
sgraffito designs in the glaze. Fantastic (as in imaginative)
bird and dragon designs. Rich, satiny glazes on a dark gray or
buff body. We liked them enough that we put up with having to
tote a piece around and carry it home on the plane. For anyone
into the earth religions (have I said that right?), they also
showed the work of someone who was either press molding or slip
casting a variety to green man/woman and related motifs as plaques
in a dark clay and then staining with iron ox. Earthy! More later,
Tom Colson (thinking carve the model in porcelain and then press
mold a nice non-warping grogged stoneware?)
tcolson@tec.raychem.com
------------------------------- Message Contents -------------------------------
Hi all-
My incoming email is definitely broken, but outgoing is still up, so here
is another installment.
Next stop York, and:
The highlight here is a collection of British Pioneer pottery,
collected by a prominent local. A fine collection of Leach, Hamada,
Staite-Murray, Cardew and their contemporaries. These pots are
wonderful. At a casual first look, one might be tempted to say,
"Hey, this stuff is not much different than some of stuff
I see leaving the studio/school where I work. What's the big deal?"
Really looking at the pieces makes apparent the subtleties of
form and mastery of brush work that make it different. Art? Maybe.
Craftsmanship of a high order, definitely. The work certainly
must have been revolutionary in its time when the industrial china
of Wedgwood et al. was the standard by which ceramics were measured.
The two panels of Leach tiles really grabbed me, too. Free, sort
of primitive feeling and different from most other tiles I've
ever seen.
I caught
the tile bug here on our last trip to the UK. The chapter house
is paved with Victorian reproduction encaustics. I like these
for their own merits even if the purists (of then and now) feel
that they are too regular and lack the touch of the craftsman
present in the medieval examples. According to some published
sources, there are medieval tiles still in-situ, but we couldn't
find them and the helpful woman in the information booth said
that the earliest remaining floor in the Minster is 17th C.
(Non-ceramic note: the Minster is awesome, even to 20th C eyes. Sitting there
and trying to see the place through the eyes of someone visiting
in the period it was built, I could see the why the Church was
successful in convincing people of the grandeur of God. Not matter
what your religion, if any, a few minutes sitting there is worthwhile.
We were lucky enough to be there when a service was happening
and heard the organ music and a boy's choir singing. Talk about
atmosphere.) (Another non-ceramic York note: if you're into objects,
check out the York Castle Museum. Miles of displays filled with
"bygones." Also a nice display on the English Civil
War period, which is tied together with excerpts from the diary
of a Yorkshireman of the period.)
Now, heading back for London, we stopped at:
We had a wonderful visit with
Chris Blanchett, tile collector and editor of the T&ACS newsletter
(journal?) "Glazed Expressions" (ugh!). Chris is a very
personable guy and we talked about all sorts of tile-related things
and lots of other stuff, too. He generously invited us to his
home for a visit after I phoned him, made us tea, showed us a
portion of his incredible collection (6,000+ pieces!), and to
top it off, even cooked us a tasty dinner! Other than ceramics,
my main addiction is books and Chris' library was enough to bring
tears to the eyes. He runs a mailorder book business specializing
in T&AC books. He has books which I've never seen in the US
and others that are a lot more expensive here. The pick of the
litter was a copy of Furnival's 1904 tome "Leadless Decorative...".
FYI for my fellow citizens of the US, if you need a hard to find
T&AC related book, you can order a copy from Chris and then
send a US$ check to the Tile Heritage Foundation, who maintain
a US$ account for him (and vice versa). Saves on all those nasty
bank charges. I can also vouch for the care in shipping - the
books were well packed by someone who knows and loves books. (Believe
it or not, we received parcels of books from Chris 6 days after
they were mailed instead of the 4-6 weeks it should have taken.
Must have been a time warp at the post office. Has anyone ever
had this happen before?) Anyone who wants to contact Chris or
the THF can shoot me an email and I'll forward the contact info.
Sorry to sound like an ad. No commercial connection to the T&ACS
or THF, although I am a THF member. Check 'em out if you're into
tile.
Back to the big city, where the truly awful air quality and frenetic
energy made me long to turn around and head back to Wales. We
persevered and were rewarded (as we knew we would be) by visits
to:
In my opinion, the best ceramics collection we saw is in the V&A.
There is no way I can adequately describe the collection. You
just have to go see it! The things we saw that come to mind right
now are everything from Egyptian paste to Iznik tiles to Roman
mosaic to Medieval pots to English slipware to Delftware to De
Morgan to Leach, Hamada, Staite-Murray, Cardew, Rie, Coper...
Also, a nice display of contemporary potters. Particularly tasty
were the salt-glazed ware from Jane Hamlyn and (Bob?) Keeler (I
think), and a wild raku figure called Hound Dog by an artist whose
name I can't recall. I was caught again by the Ruskin Pottery
work and their variety of "flambe'" glazes. Major sore
feet from standing dumbstruck in gallery after gallery. For some
lucky reason, the ceramics galleries are on the top floor with
huge glass ceilings for great light. The exception is the European
tiles exhibit which is in a dark hole of a room. I was lucky to
have seen the tiles before as half of the gallery was closed for
redisplay! It's a good collection including medieval, Victorian,
and modern British tiles as well as some early Continental (France/Germany)
line impressed work and a huge variety of tin glazed delft and
majolica. If you go, don't be fooled into thinking that what's
in the lighted display cases is it. All the way around the room
there must be 100+ drawers beneath the display cases crammed with
thousands more tiles. If they'd only get more light in there it
would be a fantastic room. We had to have lunch in the restaurant
as the walls are hung with panels of De Morgan animal tiles. We
were treated to some decent jazz (jazz brunch every Sunday) as
we ate. For anyone looking for an interior decoration overdose,
stop by the restored Victorian refreshment rooms. One is floor
to ceiling decorated with glossy architectural faience. Another
interior is by William Morris. Pretty cool if your taste runs
that way.
More later,
Tom Colson (cranking out about 300 tiles for our front entry)
tcolson@tec.raychem.com (this address currently broken in-bound)
------------------------------- Message Contents -------------------------------
Hi all-
Our next London stop:
As with the V&A, you just have to go to see it! The primary
draw for me is the extensive and well done display of medieval
tiles. Whole and partial pavements, the excavated remains of a
medieval kiln (complete with a bunch of fused wasters still inside!),
and representative examples of most types and techniques used
in the period. I really liked that they set the tiles up so you
could touch them. They were just set in the wall with notes around
them. The BM isn't big on later periods, but they do have some
nice De Morgan tiles/pottery and lots of Victorian "encaustic"
tiles on the walls above the display cases. The BM also has many
mosaic pavements from Roman Britain. Of course, the BM has a broad
collection of ceramics (and other loot...er...I mean artifacts)
from most periods and areas of the world. For some reason though,
I like the V&A collection more. The BM focuses on antiquities
and thus has more of an "historical" flavor than the
V&A, which unabashedly focuses on the decorative arts and
the objects themselves. Maybe this is why I enjoyed the V&A
more. I do feel like I gave the BM short shrift this trip and
plan to spend some significant time next trip to really see the
earlier exhibits.
(On a non-ceramic note, the Sutton Hoo burial
ship exhibit in the BM is great. The workmanship and design of
some of the gold and gold/garnet artifacts on display were amazing.
Very nice for those who appreciate Pictish/Celtic/Viking decoration.)
An awesome (in the true sense of the word) collection of Chinese
ceramics starting about the 9th C. Go and see! David managed to
get ahold of some choice pieces from the Imperial collection that
were put up as loan collateral to a bank when the Dowager Empress
was forced out of the Forbidden City. These pieces form the nucleus
of the collection which he assembled with decades of work. Finally
I understand why people make such a big deal about Chinese monochrome
wares (Cu red, blue, turquoise, yellow, green, pink), two color
(yellow/green) wares (many great pieces incl. two spittoons with
lively incised 5 toed dragons), oil spot glazes (a exquisite little
Henan bowl!), and celadons. Can't forget the peach-bloom and tenmoku
pieces either. The many pale modern copies of these types of work
might make you think the real thing isn't too interesting. I certainly
got an eye opener. Much of the modern stuff bears no real kinship
to the work here. A large portion of the collection is later blue
underglaze Ming porcelain which isn't my favorite, but there is
still plenty to love. A variety of well done guides to the collection
and various specialties within it are available as well as a broad
selection of "art-history class" slides of individual
pieces. I can't claim to be more than a passing acquaintance to
Chinese ceramics, but our visit made me understand why many people
devote their lives to studying the art.
Home of Frederic, Lord Leighton, a Victorian painter. The stunner
here is the Arab Hall, built to show off Leighton's collection
of Arabic tiles. William de Morgan provided a huge number of blue-green
plain tiles to cover other walls in the house, and supposedly
some copies of decorated tiles to fill out panels where Leighton
was short a few. Either the copies were very good or my eyes none
too critical as I couldn't spot the copies. One curiosity in the
Arabic tiles was the fact that at some point, all of the depictions
of animals and humans had been defaced by a gouge across the neck.
This was done to adhere (?) to the strict Islamic decree that
no LIVING creature can be depicted. Many fine De Morgan tiles
and vessels were on display throughout the house, some of which
were part of the original decoration scheme. The house is of course
full of Leighton's paintings as well as other work, including
more Burne-Jones paintings than we saw on one wall anywhere else.
The primary ceramic draw here is a
selection of William De Morgan work (tiles and vessels), including
two rampant lion tile panels that are pretty amazing. Of course,
if you like Morris' work, there is no other place I know of where
you can see a better selection of his textiles, wallpapers, stained
glass, and tiles. The work is nicely displayed with explanatory
panels that give a chronology of Morris' life and work. If you
think all tapestries are faded pastoral scenes, check out "The
Woodpecker". (Note for Morris devotees, heads up! Next year
is the centenary of his death and the V&A has a special exhibition
planned to commemorate his contributions to the decorative arts.
Not sure how I'm going to afford back-to-back trips to the UK,
but I'm sure going to try!)
We stopped here to see what the members of the Craft Potters Association
were up to these days. A wide variety of work on display and well
worth the visit. I was surprised at the amount of salt/soda glazed
work on show. The work on show ranges from straight forward utilitarian
ware to purely decorative pieces. Only two people working with
tile had work on display. They stock a great collection of both
practical and "art" books on ceramics. The book "Potters"
was a worthwhile purchase to get an overview of what many of the
UK's studio potters are doing today. (If you go, try to plan a
visit near lunch time so you can dine at the Cranks veggie place
next door. Good food, and that's coming from someone who is definitely
not a vegetarian. Tristan is a lot closer to being a veggie type
than I am and she thought it was great, too.)
The guide to this small museum describes
the founder as a "connoisseur". I guess if connoisseur
= rich pack rat, then I agree :). It was fun if a bit bizarre
to see the incredible jumble of artifacts from almost any period
and locale crammed into the place. And I mean crammed! Very narrow
squirrley passages thread up, down, around and through the collection
and you never know what is around the corner. Everything from
the sarcophagus of Seti I (alabaster (?) carved on every square
inch with hieroglyphic writing) to the Rake's Progress paintings
(I guess these are famous, but I'm not sure why). I saw a few
medieval tiles there, so it counts as a stop on the tile trek.
If you have a little extra time, take a chance and see the place,
no matter what your interests. Do try to avoid visiting when a
mob of talkative, gray-haired French ladies are there. No way
to avoid getting caught in the crowd in such cramped quarters.
(Please, no flames from the Anti-Defamation League of Retired
French Women. I'm just trying to create an accurate picture in
your minds eye. :)
That's all (?!) the tile and ceramics stuff we had time and energy
to see in just over three weeks. Now...it must be time to start
thinking about some stops for the next trip! The "Potters"
book should be a great place to start looking for ideas.
Thanks again to all the clayarters who helped us enjoy this trip
by giving us suggestions.
Tom Colson (about 1/2 way through with the entry tiles and still
hanging on)
tcolson@tec.raychem.com
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