Well, in the final day of our So-Cal adventure, Lin and I headed up to Ojai, a small 'artsy' community up in the hills outside of Ventura. This was more or less a pilgrimage to see Otto Heine, an 89-year-old potter who earns over a million a year making plates, bowls, and candle-holders.
It turns out a good amount of his fortune comes from the yellow glaze he created. In Japan, the color used to be used for ceremonial ceramics, but the secret formula/technique was lost. Yellow is a really hard color, mostly it burns off in the firing process, but Otto re-discovered the secret to making it work, and the Japanese government has been getting all their official yellow pots from him ever since.
Even at that he had a yellow pitcher, about a foot-and-a-half tall that he was selling for 10 grand, and the little plates in purple weren't ever less than $75. A little too pricy for my liking, I'm afraid.
With a smoothie on the way back into town, then some dinner with Vicki, and finally some quick packing, we were set for our return.
Now we face the daunting task of returning to our studies for a mere eight weeks before we're totally through.
And so it goes . .