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Welcome to my blog. I will attempt to make it much more than just a pitiful list of the relentlessly mundane minutiae of my daily existence but if you feel that I have failed try to imagine all the stuff that I haven't posted.

Wednesday 15 February 2012

That old un-conformist Hutton

Edinburgh can be seen as the birthplace of the science of Geology, where Hutton first published his controversial theories, challenging the orthodoxy that the Earth was only a few thousand years old. He was inspired by numerous geological features, but one of them can be seen in Holyrood Park in Edinburgh, home to the extinct volcano Arthur's Seat.

Here a section of older sedimentary rock can be seen curling up into a massive vein of intruded basalt above it. It is called Hutton's Section, or Hutton's unconformity, after he persuaded the quarrymen at the time to work around it and leave it intact.
Behind this feature is Arthur's Seat - the basaltic plug from an ancient volcano. Using this rock as the base for the glaze and every other material, including the clay, I made this 'Edinburgh' pot.

4 comments:

  1. That's a corker Matthew. Looks fabulous! Very much looking forward to hearing about your rock hunting in a few weeks.
    h

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  2. That's lovely. I must find the number for the guy who owns Wenford - those ball mills are still there. They won't be easy to get out, but amazing machines and a great bit of history

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  3. That is one of the most beautiful pots I have seen.
    You really are a clever bugger.

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  4. What a beautiful pot!!!
    Looks like a pudding!

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