The studio radio died on Tuesday and I've been carving to the washing machine since
Small thing but it's thrown me. The little Roberts radio in the studio, the one with the aerial held on with a strip of gaffer, finally gave up after about fifteen years. Took it apart, cleaned the dial, nothing. So it's just me and the noise of the house now.
And I've discovered the washing machine has a rhythm to it. Not a nice one either. It's a sort of thunk-thunk-thunk-whirr that sets up a tempo I did not ask for, and I've caught myself carving to it. Small controlled cuts, then a long pause at the whirr. Took me two days to cop that my hand was following a spin cycle. The hare's ear I'm working on is now in 4/4 whether it wants to be or not.
I'm not one for the headphones thing either, tried it, the earphones kept pulling the block sideways when I leaned over. So I'm left with options. Talk radio in the morning, which is a mistake because I end up arguing with it and losing my line. Or one of the kids' story tapes on the little speaker, which honestly is winning at the moment, there's a version of the Children of Lir on it that's grand to work to.
Pointless question I know, but I'm genuinely curious what's on in other people's rooms when the work is happening. Music, silence, the telly through the wall, the dog snoring. I've a feeling the answer says a lot about the person. Mine currently says: I am carving a hare to the beat of a load of whites.
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Oh no, fifteen years is a good run for a radio held together with gaffer tape though. Sorry for your loss.
The washing machine thing made me laugh because I do the opposite. My setup is a corner of the basement next to the dryer and I've started timing my paint drying breaks to when it kicks on, because it's the only warm spot in the house. So my whole rhythm is dictated by laundry too, just less poetically than yours.
Fingers crossed the hare's ear survived the spin cycle influence. What kind of carving are you doing?
The warm corner by the dryer is a real survival tactic though. I did a whole winter firing in a garage with no heating and my hands were so cold the clay just went stiff and fought me the whole time. Not poetic at all, just misery.
Careful with the dryer though. I put a greenware piece near a radiator once to speed it up and it cracked clean across the base. Clay does not like to be rushed, learned that the expensive way.
Ah the garage winter, I know that misery. I did a stint in a shed out the back of a place in Spiddal, one of those plug-in oil rads on full and you'd still see your breath. Cold hands and a lino gouge is a bad combination, the tool goes where it wants and takes a bit of your knuckle with it. No romance in it at all, you're right.
And yeah, the dryer's only for drying, I'm not daft enough to speed anything up near it. Learned the same lesson as you with a proof actually, left a damp sheet of Somerset on top of the rad to hurry it along and it cockled like a crisp. You can't rush paper either. Or clay, by the sound of it. Same religion.
The hare's fine by the way, ear survived the washing machine tempo. Just took a week longer than it should have.
Ha, the dryer as a drying rack, that's the most honest studio tip I've heard all week. Whatever works. I proofed a print next to a radiator for two winters and the paper went like a crisp, so you're doing better than me.
Fifteen years is fair going alright, though the truth is the gaffer tape was doing most of the broadcasting towards the end. It'd hiss through the news and I'd just nod along like I understood.
Linocut, mostly. Bold black and white, hares and herons, a bit of the bog and the cliffs, the odd puca when I'm feeling brave. The hare's ear pulled through grand, the left one's a bit more "windblown" than the right now. We'll call it character.