Bathroom Aesthetics (4)

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This is a suitable bathroom tile. The first impression is a lot like celadon, but a closer look reveals it is not: there are two layers of glaze: the dull, colored on the bottom (the color is intentionally uneven); and the clear on top. The latter cracks when cooling, producing nifty patterns.


The crackle produces more than a web pattern: it also creates an uneven surface. The effect is a little like cracked eggshell: different sized splinters (flat areas defined by the cracks) are all at a slight angle to each other and the horizontal. This is barefuly perceptible in full daylight, but when ambient light is low, it becomes very obvious that each splinter reflects light at a different angle. This produces a nice effect when you half-close your eyes:

(The light is coming from the garden, through the length of the shady bedroom and into the windowless shower).

Bathroom Aesthetics (3)

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But perhaps you do not have an open-air shower. In such a case, you could do a lot worse than install a glass brick window in your indoor bathroom:



Come closer. Take a look:

Can you see how the view from outside is transformed: the slender betel palm stalk, the jumbled greenery, the wooden side-wall of the house -- twisted and jumbled in the bricks' kaleidoscopic eye; and shifting -- now this way, now that -- as you yourself shift on your feet, now a little to the left, now a little to the right? Can you see the little yellow veins in the cocoa wood? And the flashes of green lightning in the bush -- like the green flash in the peacock's tail or in the setting sun over the ocean?

And can you believe the impossible twistiness of the palm-tree stem? It seems to want to tie itself in knots.

The judges say (Radamanthes and all): 9.3 - 9.3 - 9.4 - 9.5 - 9.2 - 9.3 - 9.4

Bathroom Aesthetics (2)

If you can then arrange for an unseasonal afternoon squall to dump about 3 inches of water into your open-air shower, along with more broken flowers and debris; and to clear up before sunset so that a blue sky -- and the shadow of the fire tree -- can be reflected on the surface the water; that's +7 points.

Bathroom Aesthetics (1)

You have heard of bathroom humor. You at least should have heard of bathroom literature. Now, it is time for you to hear of bathroom aesthetics.

A good place to start is with an open air shower, tiled in deep sea-green celadon, with a fire-tree for a roof. Not too leafy or else you won't see the sky while you shower. Then you must arrange for a nice stiff breeze from time to time to strike your tree, shake its branches, and strew a few flowers on your floor. Not too many, and, please, not too symmetrically.

It's best if the fire-tree if of the blood-orange variety, but, in a pinch the yellow blossom will do. Of course, yellow blossoms go better with deep blue tile; and as retiling is really only a little more hassle than replanting a tree (after all, once planted, a tree mostly grows by itself); it's best to get your blossoms-and-tile color scheme right -- right off the bat.

Then, you tread upon the whole thing with bare feet. And boy, does it feel nice.

Staring at the pond

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My pond is a fascinating place and staring at it is a full time job. It lies in the shade of the trees. In places direct sunlight hits it, and, penetrating below the surface, it scatters within the depths off the small particles of mud suspended in the water creating milky areas of impenetrability. Other areas of the pond lie in varying densities of shadow: the deeper the shadow, the more faithful the reflection of the world above: trees, sky, and clouds. The wind moves the trees and with it, the effects on the water shift.

Now, add to that complexity other layers of complexity: that there are here and there objects -- usually dry leaves or flower petals -- scattered and floating on the surface of the pond. In other places objects sunken under the surface can be seen: branches dropped in the water by the wind, or fish sunbathing lazily right under the surface. As if that was not enough, the surface of the pond is sometimes disturbed: perhaps a fish has stirred near the surface; or a kingfisher skimmed the surface in an attempt to catch a small fry; or something fell into the water from the trees above. All these events cause different sorts of waves, resulting in different patterns on the water; and sometimes two happen at once, creating a kaleidoscopic interference.

An American naturalist who sometime in the 1820's retired to live in a shack by a pond, wrote how sitting by the pond and staring pointlessly brought up to his lips, unawares, a silly smile. I emulate that great literary model a great deal these days.

Two cheap "batik" prints, Indonesian, ca. 2009

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Like the title says. Each less than 4 bucks. What a cheap way to beat the blahs.