In Cútar one makes soap from olive oil as soon as the oil is a year or two old. Actually, one can even make it from oil that has been used for deep frying... And, any soapy water left from cleaning up after making the soap can be saved and used in the washing machine. Waste? That doesn't exist.
How to:
5 liters olive oil, old or new. Add 1 kilo caustic soda dissolved in water, add more water. Total amount of water: 5 liters. Stir for one hour. Pour into a form. Let sit over night. Cut. Let sit in a shady place a couple wks. The longer you wait the better the consistency of the soap. If you want a scent, add just before pouring up.
Contrary to what the pictures below illustrates, the caustic soda is very corrosive, and protective clothing, especially gloves and eye protection, is a very good idea. Click below to start slide show.
Concrete is used more than any other man-made material in the world. About 7.5 cubic kilometers of concrete are made each year--more than one cubic meter for every person on earth.
Concrete solidifies and hardens after mixing with water, cement and aggregate due to a chemical process known as hydration. The water reacts with the cement, which bonds the other components together, eventually creating a robust stone-like material. In Spain concrete is used to make architectural structures, pavements, pipe, foundations, roads, bridges/overpasses, brick/block walls and footings for gates, fences and poles etc - and to make art. The first week of August Judy Farrar held a workshop in Concrete Art at laCultura. Above are some examples of what she showed us:
Jason deCaires Taylor was born in 1974 to an English father and Guyanese mother, spending the earlier part of his life growing up in Europe, Asia and the Caribbean.In May 2006 he gained international recognition for creating the world’s first underwater sculpture park in Grenada, West Indies. His underwater sculptures, designed to create artificial reefs for marine life to colonise and inhabit, embrace the transformations wrought by ecological processes. The works engage with a vision of the possibilities of a sustainable future, portraying human intervention as positive and affirmative.
Eduardo Chillida was born San Sebastian in northern Spain 1924 and is perhaps one of Europe’s most prolific sculptors of the 20th century. His work is installed throughout Europe, Iran, Japan and the United States. In 1984, he and his wife bought the Zabalaga farmhouse in the town of Hernani, just outside of San Sebastian. They would slowly expand the property and restore the farmhouse until it was ready for unveiling as the Chillida-Leku Museum in 2000. Unfortunately, Eduardo died in 2002.
Isac Cordal started the Cement Eclipses project in 2006 in Barcelona. Since then, the mini installations have spread over cities like Berlin, London, Brussels and now, Amsterdam. They are like the three dimensional family members of Claire Harvey’s little lonely characters that she painted on transparent foil; they look somewhat lost in their surroundings too.
A newer addition to Spanish architectural structures made out of concrete is The Barcelona Torre Agbar or Agbar Tower from 2005. It iis a 38-storey tower located between Avinguda Diagonal and Carrer Badajoz, near Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes, which marks the gateway to the new technological district of Barcelona. It combines several different architectural concepts, resulting in a structure built with reinforced concrete, covered with a facade of glass, with over 4,500 window openings cut out of the structural concrete.
Please mail us i
f you would like to know more about the workshop - or are interested in enrolling in a future course
How to make a simple foot stool:
And we also have found the best place in the Malaga area for materials for ceramics. And, Santiago, the owner, is a gem.
Santiago Pidal Materiales para el Ceramista
Av. Duque de Aveiro, 21
29140 Churriana - Málaga
Tel.: 952 435 168 / Fax: 952 437 408
tienda@santiagopidal.es
RAKU firing last night...
The process of Raku firing differs from other firing methods
RAKU firing last night...The process of Raku firing differs from other firing methods because the pots are removed from the kiln at their maximum temperature. Glazes will often fracture, and these crackle glazes are enhanced by the post firing smoking of raku pots that embeds carbon into the crackles of the glaze. Ceramics have been made on the coasts of the Mediterranean since prehistoric time. Ceramic form, color and technics in Andalusia have a history extending several millennia, which has had a great influence on contemporary domestic design. Rakú, on the other hand, was developed in Japan, and didn't reach Europe until the 20th century. Every year a small group of contemporary artisans meet at laCultura in order to experiment with the union of these two strong cultures and together continue to develop working with clay, glazing and rakúfiring. The instructor is Cilla Adlercreutz, ceramist and artist, who has worked with a number of firing technics since the 1970s. This weeks workshop is the last official for the season, but it's pretty addictive, and we will for sure spend a few more coming summer nights in front of the fire.
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