Notices by Madeleine Morris (remittancegirl@mstdn.social)

Want some good news?

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/aug/26/shingles-vaccine-lower-risk-heart-attack-stroke-study

I am going to have a lot to bisque fire tomorrow. More test tiles - because I'm trying to tweak my glaze to get past the crazing. A few samples of oil warmers - tiny and a little larger. And these coffee tumblers... Which are sporting the terra sig I have fallen in love with so hard. #pottery #ceramics

Dora, supervisor of test tile production #Cats #CatsOfMastodon

RE: https://hachyderm.io/@inthehands/116959074622157576

This requires reframing- and I exclude the few Americans who are still actively working against this, of course-

America turns a blind eye to the forcible ‘disappearing’ of hundreds of thousands.

RE: https://flipboard.com/@cnn/world-news-4kh9bmbmz/-/a-6wY_1s_ZQw6Q3QIIZ1ZT2g%3Aa%3A132361178-%2F0

It's not that I have a problem in principle with banning children from social media.

My problem is that it is a fucking LAZY ASSED response that doesn't lay the responsibility where it belongs and demand the accountability necessary to address the problems of social media.

Governments need to hold social media companies accountable for the harm they cause in publishing harmful content on their platform - criminally. Period.

THAT would address the actual problem.

Well, it's been a day full of work. But it's had its rewards. Remember the tea bowl I made yesterday?

Well, this is it with 2 coats of my terra sigillata with a little black pigment in it.

And let me tell you, for all that I abhor microfibre, it's the best thing I've found so far for the polishing process. #pottery #ceramics #terrasigillata

Today Mary Fox's book 'Developing Glazes' arrived.

And it is truly magnificent and out of the box thinking on glazes. #ceramics #pottery

https://maryfoxpottery.ca/shop/developing-glazes-lowfire-reduction-and-oxidation/

There are some things that I can happily use in digital form, but books on pottery and glazing... I need print versions of those. Preferably hardback.

Good morning! It’s Sunday and still nice and cool, and I’m playing with terra sigillata #ceramics #pottery

In Andalucia we get these dust storms up from the Sahara, called a Calima or Kalima, which deposit huge amounts of extremely fine sand onto everything. It coats cars and stains the sides of buildings.

When I was sweeping up on the roof the other day, I found a little corner with a pile of it. It's been there sitting there since our last kalima. So I mixed it in with some ball clay, to see if I could make some terra sig out of it. #ceramics #pottery

Now that I have gained some small proficiency at throwing on the wheel, I have been thinking conceptually, about what I would like to express with #ceramics I want to do something with the idea of uninvited arrivals. My father's side of the family are Sephardic Jews. They arrived here as migrants from Morocco during the Al-Andalus period.

There has always been great ambivalence about this period here. And yet, the impact of this period became part of what defines Andalucia. #Pottery

Similarly, while people tend to dread the arrival of the Kalima here, it literally colours the landscape, it colours the clay here. Andalucia would not be itself without Kalimas.

I am really drawn to this as a metaphor for migration.

Anyway, I'm rambling. #ceramics #pottery

There is also a nice little linguistic parapraxis - that kalima and 'clima' sound very similar. The hotter and dryer it gets in this part of the world, the more kalimas we will have, and the more people will migrate because of climate change.

So I'm playing with a lot of ideas, historically, sociologically, and meteorologically. Which ultimately, speaks to the heart of the art of ceramics.

Unlike when I was younger, I don't feel the same need to bring logic into this. #ceramics #pottery

This all really came about as a consequence of the technical limitations I either have to live with - earthenware and low temp firings - or overcome. At first I thought of all the money I could throw at overcoming those limitations.

Then I thought further and thought about how inauthentic that was. What a consumerist solution that was.

It's a greater challenge and more exciting to find a way to make something new and good with what I already have. #ceramics #pottery

If you are white, this podcast is an outstanding look at how ingrained the myth of ‘the Police’ is in our consciousness.

And while there are certainly somewhat better social contracts between the police and the citizenry in some parts of the world, the author's critiques are still powerful.

#Policing

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/ordinary-unhappiness/id1680330412?i=1000775433558

Something occurred to me. Two decades in the tropics have caused me to assume knowledge that I guess some people just don't get taught.

Infections happen very fast in the heat. If you get a cut or a blister, you need to clean it, disinfect it and cover it STRAIGHT AWAY.

I realise that my northern European neighbours only have a few days left of this heat, but please take it seriously.

It's actually quite staggering how many French Colonists died of shaving cuts in Indochina.

To my northern neighbours suffering from the current heat wave.

I lived in approx 38C with 90% humidity for 20 years, and I have a few pieces of advice.

1. Don't do anything fast that you can do slow.
2. Umbrellas aren't just for rain. They work for sun, too.
3. Sweat is your friend. Drink lots of liquid, eat and drink things that trigger sweating.

4. Cold showers and baths trigger your body to warm up. Room temp showers work best - and don't bother drying off.

RE: https://journa.host/@samlitzinger/116784883875340095

I'm so fucking tired of hearing these murderous bastards say that the people they killed 'were not targets', as if that is a coherent statement.

When you drop bombs, you've targeted. Period. You are responsible for what you destroy. Period.

Today I spent my time at the workshop mixing a glaze called Tenmoku Gold Tea Dust.

While there are a lot of beautiful commercial glazes, I really love the unknown of experimentation. I did a bit of that mixing base glazes with oxides.

But tenmoku glazes are meant to act unexpectedly, and that really intrigued me.

So, this is my first glaze. It is meant for a cone 6 and above firing, but I am still going to try it at a lower temp and see what I get.

#ceramics #pottery

RE: https://federate.social/@mattblaze/116740915392913397

Great alternative viewing to the World Cup.