Im having a bit of a hard time with remedy 7 pouch. I think the remedy is very inspiring and as so much to work with, but maybe that’s the problem I’m having. I think the main elements are
o The smell the barro has when it has been wet in the rain
o The warmth from her mug pressed against her chest
The first thing that came to mind was making my own mug out of barro but the problem with that is
· I won’t find local barro
· Even if I get it from Mexico, I do not know how it is sourced
· Do I want to support the mining of virgin materials?
· I would have to fire it with a kiln
o I have found some services that you can fire with other peoples work and it isn’t too expensive, but it would require a lot of energy, energy that I don’t know where it comes from
· I would have to incur a lot of personal spending for raw material, glaze, and tools to form the mug
This seems all like a distraction from the actual project. Even though I strive to learn a new skill in each remedy that I make, I feel as though it needs to be a skill that will make me more self-sufficient and realistically-pottery is work that should be left to the skilful artists and crafts people that have worked with it for decades, have the proper tools and the culture and heritage to follow.
So, I thought, what about finding scraps of already fired barro / terracotta/ red clay? I could use these scraps and place them on a tray to wet and have next to you while having your cup of coffee?
Or what if you use these scraps, place them in a cup of some sort, pour hot water inside and hold it near your chest? The smell of the barro will reach you nose; you will have something warm in your chest and it removes the problem of the coffee where some people don’t drink it, or it causes digestive issues.
Or we let the person have coffee in their mug from home and I buy a second-hand terracotta saucer that can be filed with terracotta scraps which can be wet. They can sit and place the saucer in front of them and sit with their coffee in the sun. I can place dirt at the bottom of the saucer to heighten the smell and mimic rainwater.
Then I can find some properly sourced coffee, as local as possible
I think the main connection I can see with this remedy is extractivism and slave labour, especially when we think about the extraction of minerals for clay when we already have an abundance and the slave labour that is often associated with coffee.
I have also found some reclaimed terracotta tiles which can be used as a coaster for their mug of coffee which can be wet before using. But I am unsure as to whether the smell would be strong enough.
I think in the end im gonna go with the second-hand terracotta saucer from a family business and find some other types of terracotta to place inside. Then find some good coffee.
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