As all Ephraim Faience Pottery fans know, this art pottery company still releases its hand thrown and decorated vases and other pottery in limited edition.  The photographs you see here just reinforce our appreciation of this modern art pottery line, each one with a striking background, courtesy of fellow Ephraim collectors Steve and Rose.  Steve has masterfully managed to incorporate elements of nature and used it to highlight the intricacies Ephraim Faience art pottery is so well known for.  Notice the Ephraim Trillium vase - this is one that remains as popular now as it was when it was released. The greens play off the whites in the flower for a soft glow that's incredibly difficult to replicate.  

"By looking at the archaeological sites and comparing them to other early settlements such as St Augustine, we can try to understand what went wrong. The fate of the lost (galleon) 'Santa Isabel' is one of the great mysteries in the early exploration of the Pacific, but now we have the chance of finding out what happened to them in the forests of a remote Pacific Island," Gibbs said.

He said the Spanish were also looking for the continent of Australia and would have found it 200 years before other Europeans if they'd taken a slightly more southern route.

At the site where he suspects the colony stood, Gibbs said his team used a magnetometer, which measures the tiny differences in magnetism between disturbed soil and undisturbed soil. The instruments found a 20-foot by 20-foot square that appears to have been some kind of structure. Excavation will determine what it is, he said.

The local arts leader, Wabash Valley Trust for Historic Preservation board member and Ninth Street Hill organizer established Jefferson High School's ceramics program in the 1970s when she was a teacher there.

But in the early 1980s, Boswell was forced to leave after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a disease that affects muscle control, vision and balance. MS did not allow her to have the motor skills to throw on a pottery wheel or build a sculpture out of clay.

 

The chemistry is tricky, but Majeski is science-minded and inventive. He makes much of the equipment he needs. He makes pigments for his glazes. He makes brushes he needs for painting the coarse surface of pots, platters and decorative objects. In an electric kiln he's made, Majeski fires the pieces -- at 1,800 degrees for the first firing, then at 2,150 degrees for the glaze firing. He fires almost every night with off-peak power, using "gobs" of electricity. To heat and electrify his work space, Majeski has configured a solar panel system connected to batteries. - Chicago Tribune