Different clay and glaze

 

 

Recent glazes

Recently I mixed up a blue that I really like. It looks totally different depending on the thickness. It looks midnight blue with tiny crystals in it when it's thick and it is very light, matte blue where thinner. The best part is that it overlaps well with my other glazes. My favorite is probably it matched with the green. This is it over a nutmeg glaze. The first is an example of a very thin application. The second picture is an example of a thicker application.

Mom, this is not the pattern we were talking about the other day. I don't have a picture of that. But I was about to take this one to Christy's shop, so I snapped a picture.

Shocking Fish

Wednesday I had the opportunity to work with a group counting fish species on the Little Tennessee river just across the Georgia state line. The idea was that we would capture the fish in 15 sections and their overall size and species would tell us (actually it would tell the PhD, who would tell us) about the health of the river. There was a Fruit of the Loom plant a few miles upstream of this site that has recently closed and so they want to try to continue to measure any changes in the area.

Here is how it worked:
Two people wore backpack shockers with a wand. We would all wade around and while they ran the shockers, the fish would be lightly stunned, we would net them and toss them in a bucket or a basket. Also, we would set up two guys with a net at the end of the run to get the ones that the dipnetters missed. I thought that the shock would be stronger and the fish would basically all float to the top. Actually, it just stuns them for a short time and if you don't net them relatively quickly they will recover and swim off. Another thing that I didn't expect is that we were all in the water while the shocking was happening. In fact, the shocking probe would hit peoples legs, etc, and it didn't really matter. The only time you could feel the voltage was when you put bare skin in the water near a shocker, which I did once accidentally. It wasn't as bad as an electric fence.

After working these sections we would gather around Dr. Bill, the marine biologist while he identified each of the species and they were counted. The data is then used to create an IBI (Index of Biological Integrity) score. Things like whether fish that eat insects were abundant or missing for example tell you things about what is happening with the river.

Overall it was really interesting and I may be able to do another trip next week. There was once species of "fish" (debates rage) that I had never heard of was the Mountain Brook Lamprey. It looks like an eel and spend most of it's life with no eyes, digging in the mud. Then, for a short time, it matures and mates before dying. In fact, I don't think they even eat as adults. Click here for more information.