Brick marks

I'm afraid this is me being a bit self-indulgent.  After I saw an art-work by the artist Mark Wallinger which consisted of 1000 bricks all with his first name chalked on them, I thought I'd extend the idea - by marking a number of brick walls in my locality in much the same way. My first name is Mark too.
The photo you see is a montage of some of my efforts.

Of course my work is temporary (the marks were gone after a week of rain) and Mark Wallinger's pieces are a lot more valuable... but I enjoyed the experiment of the comparison.

Free works of art

The British Ceramic Biennial Show is under way in Stoke-on-Trent again, and lasts until November.  The exhibits on show have a wide range - from industry output to rather eccentric works of pottery art.

On this stand in the photo, the artist Lawrence Epps, who has been working at Ibstock Bricks, was showing some 15,000 items of mass-produced sculpted brick.  Members of the public were encouraged to pick up a paper bag and take one of the pieces home with them.
It certainly solves the problem of what to do with the exhibits at the end of the show...

A row of gold coin

A street not far from Stoke town centre is a monument to good fortune, but unless you look carefully you'll miss the fine details - the words between the bricks.

The row of glazed tiles you see in the photo was installed on the exterior of all the houses along Shelburne Street, a row of terraced homes, when the street itself was created.

The story goes that the developer of the houses here had won a considerable amount of money at the races - which he then used the fund the project.
And the name of the winning horse?  Well, the clue is in the tiles... "Gold Coin"!

May we all have such good fortune in the New Year...

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