Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America by Robert Whitaker This book is written with an agenda, and I usually don’t like one-sided arguments, but in this case, the argument is one that I was already disposed to believe: namely, that taking mind-altering drugs does …
Feb 21
Mosaic Tiles 4
This is the last of the batch of mosaic tiles I made in this kiln load. The crawling design on the green tiles is from overfiring. It is not intentional, but I’m going to pretend that it was. I have so many of these that at some point I ought to think of a design …
Feb 18
Inlay Tiles
The inlay technique has been used to awesome effect for centuries. You create an incised design in a colored clay body, then add a slip in a contrasting color. When you scrape off the slip, the design underneath comes through in crisp detail. I have never been able to make it work. For these, I …
Feb 15
Leaf Mosaic Tiles
I saw a picture in a book of a tile mosaic that looked like a carpet made of leaves. These are difficult in the same way that quilting is difficult–they take precision and a great deal of time. To make the leaf vein pattern, I used a mulberry leaf. The shapes are about an inch …
Feb 13
Book Review: The Amazing Adventures of Working Girl
The Amazing Adventures of Working Girl by Karen Burns Karen Burns, AKA “Working Girl” says she’s had 59 jobs in her life, and therefore she’s an expert at the working world. I kept expecting to see a septegenarian on the back cover, but apparently she counts each freelance assignment as a separate “job.” Still, she …